Home Minister Amit Shah met senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders late Sunday who are believed to be unhappy with party president Sunetra Pawar and her son Parth, and urged them to resolve their internal rift in the party’s interest, according to a report by The Times of India.
The BJP is concerned about organisational discord in the NCP, a partner in the BJP-led NDA.
Attending the meeting at Shah’s residence were NCP national working president Praful Patel, Maharashtra unit chief Sunil Tatkare, ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Hasan Mushrif, and leaders Dhananjay Munde and Dilip Patil. Neither Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar nor Parth was present. Sunetra then called a core committee meeting in Mumbai.
Sources said the dissidents’ concerns remained unresolved after talks with Sunetra, Parth and his younger sibling Jay. The coming days will be crucial for the NCP, the report said.
At the meeting, the group aired grievances, mainly that Parth was allegedly riding roughshod over the party while his mother allowed him to have his way. Seniors who sided with the late Ajit Pawar during the split with Sharad Pawar did not criticise Sunetra, but resented her allowing Parth to repeatedly call the shots, an unhappy party member said.
The member added that Sunetra, having grown up in a political family and married into the Pawar clan, would sense the unease among the seniors. Ajit Pawar’s confidants at Shah’s residence underlined the isolation of Sunetra and Parth, the report said.
The rift has been building over what confidants of the late Ajit Pawar see as Parth’s attempt to push key decisions through his mother without consulting them. Ajit Pawar’s sudden death in a plane crash thrust Sunetra into the leadership.
The immediate trigger appeared to be the NCP’s loss in the one MLC seat it contested. The Sharad Pawar-led faction won two seats, suggesting that some family loyalists may have returned to the veteran leader’s camp.
The BJP believes the discord could help the opposition, especially the NCP-SP, regain ground in western Maharashtra and hurt the ruling coalition. The Shinde-led Shiv Sena is the coalition’s third partner. Shinde, a Maratha like the Pawars, could use the NCP’s decline to gain leverage over the BJP, the report said.
Sources said merger talks between the two NCP factions were also raised at Shah’s residence. Tatkare rejected suggestions that such discussions were continuing. He said after the core committee meeting that the merger issue was closed and that even senior leaders of the other NCP faction had said so. Hours earlier, NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule had attended the INDIA bloc rally in Delhi.
Tatkare claimed there were no differences in the party. But NCP functionaries held another meeting at Bhujbal’s residence in Mumbai, again without Sunetra or Parth. Chief spokesperson Umesh Patil said attempts were being made to give Shah’s meeting unnecessary political colour and to create a false narrative of internal differences.