NCP says it could go solo in local polls

MUMBAI: Although the BJP is looking to win the forthcoming local body polls by contesting them in alliance with its partners, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP on Saturday said it was ready to contest the elections on its own. On the first day of its two-day conclave at Shirdi, senior NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil said the party would decide its strategy for the local polls. “If there is an alliance it’s okay, else we will contest alone,” he said.

State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule has announced that the party wants to fight the local elections along with its allies, the Shiv Sena and NCP. The ruling Mahayuti alliance is looking to benefit from the fact that the three parties of the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi are likely to contest separately, as the Shiv Sena (UBT) has already announced its plan to go solo in the municipal and district council elections.

In the conclave, the first major one after the assembly election win, Ajit Pawar as well as party state president Sunil Tatkare told their party colleagues not to get carried away with the victory and prepare for the local self-government polls. Talking to the media after the first day of the conclave, Walse Patil said the NCP would discuss its strategy for the local elections and see what the Mahayuti was planning. “We will see if there is a possibility of an alliance, else we will contest on our own,” he said.

Meanwhile, Satish Chavan, who had joined the NCP (SP) to contest the assembly elections from Gangapur in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, on Saturday returned to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. Welcoming him back into the party, Ajit said that several people wanted to join the NCP and also insisted that the party had not given up its ideology of secularism. Chavan claimed that the two factions of the NCP could come together in the future. “Workers of both factions want this,” he said.

Senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who has been smarting on account of being denied a cabinet ministerial berth, attended the conclave on Saturday. The OBC leader turned up after senior leaders Tatkare and Praful Patel requested him to attend for at least a few hours. He held a meeting with Patel and also parried media questions on whether Ajit Pawar—who, he has claimed, was the one who stymied his entry into the cabinet—had called him.

Food and civil supplies minister Dhananjay Munde, who has been in the eye of a storm following the arrest of his close aide Walmik Karad in a murder and extortion case in Beed, skipped the conclave on the first day. He is said to have left for Shirdi and will join on Day 2. The opposition as well as the Mahayuti allies have been demanding Munde’s resignation.

Both Ajit and Tatkare asked partymen not to lose focus and stay grounded. Tatkare said it was important to stay humble and focused after the party’s win in the assembly elections and added that in the future, the organisation would need to chart a new course and give the party a new direction in terms of thinking and approach. He reiterated the need to create a strong party presence by 2047 and urged everyone to unite under Ajit Pawar’s leadership. Pawar, who will deliver his address today, also asked his partymen to be prepared for local self-government polls