NCP starts pacifying its OBC face Chhagan Bhujbal

Mumbai: After ignoring his sulking for a month, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has begun placating its disgruntled senior leader and Other Backward Classes (OBC) face, Chhagan Bhujbal. Maharashtra NCP president Sunil Tatkare has requested the 77-year-old to attend the party’s two-day conclave in Shirdi next week and address one of the sessions.

Tatkare’s request is the first step taken by the NCP to pacify Bhujbal, who has been unhappy about not being inducted into the state cabinet last month. The development assumes significance in the backdrop of another OBC leader from the NCP, Dhananjay Munde, facing heat over his close links with Walmik Karad, an accused in an extortion case related to the murder of Santosh Deshmukh, a village sarpanch in the Beed district, which has snowballed into a major political controversy. The NCP leadership is under pressure to sack Munde, who holds the food and civil supplies portfolio, from the state cabinet.

On Tuesday, Tatkare telephoned Bhujbal and urged him to attend the NCP conclave. “I personally called Bhujbal saheb on the phone and requested him to address a session as we all want to hear his margdarshan (guidance),” the Maharashtra NCP chief said.

When contacted, Bhujbal said he has yet not decided whether he will attend the conclave. “I’m not feeling well today. There is also enough time to think about it. I have yet to take a decision on it,” he told Hindustan Times. Asked if he is still unhappy with the party leadership, Bhujbal said he would not keep repeating what he has already said in the past.

The NCP is organising a two-day conclave, Navsankalp Shibir, in Shirdi on January 18-19 to mark the launch of its membership drive and strategise for the upcoming local body elections across the state, which are being dubbed as mini assembly polls.

Bhujbal has been sulking after not being made a minister in the first expansion of the Devendra Fadnavis-led Mahayuti 2.0 government on December 15. The NCP got 10 berths in the ministerial council, but the party chose to ignore one of its most senior leaders and OBC faces.

The party leadership was upset with Bhujbal for several reasons, including being pressured to nominate his son Pankaj Bhujbal to the legislative council in October, the rebellion by his nephew Sameer Bhujbal during the assembly polls in November, and his statement about “looking for options” after he was left out of the cabinet last month.

Bhujbal’s statements against the party leadership on being left out of the state cabinet and his claim that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was keen to induct him but backtracked due to opposition from Ajit Pawar further angered the party leadership. On December 23, Bhujbal even met Fadnavis with his nephew and claimed he had a detailed discussion with the chief minister regarding important social and political issues.

Bhujbal, among the senior-most leaders in the undivided NCP, chose to side with Ajit Pawar during the party split in 2023 despite considering party founder Sharad Pawar his political mentor. He was the food and civil supplies minister in the previous Mahayuti government, while his son was an MLC, and his nephew was NCP’s Mumbai president.