Ajit Pawar’s NCP has the last laugh

Mumbai: The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), seen by many in the run-up to the Maharashtra assembly elections as the weakest link in the Mahayuti coalition, had the last laugh on Saturday as it won 41 of the 59 seats it contested.
The results settled the debate over which NCP faction wields greater electoral clout after the erstwhile party split in July last year. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP won 29 of the 40 seats it fought in a direct contest with the faction led by his uncle Sharad Pawar. Of the remaining 11 seats that it contested, the NCP (Sharad Pawar) could win only seven as the remaining four were divided equally between the BJP and independents.
Ajit retained his bastion Baramati assembly constituency, which he has been representing since 1991 for the last seven terms. He defeated his own nephew Yugendra fielded by Sharad Pawar. Yugendra is the son of Shrinivas Pawar, the younger brother of Ajit. The Baramati results came as a big relief for Ajit after a shocking setback in the Lok Sabha polls when his wife Sunetra lost the seat against his cousin Supriya Sule.
In July 2023, the NCP broke into two factions after Ajit Pawar decided to join the ruling Mahayuti government by taking 40 MLAs with him. He was made deputy chief minister and another eight leaders were inducted in the ministerial council. Veteran leader Sharad Pawar, who formed the NCP, was left with around 15 MLAs. On the basis of having a majority of MLAs, the ECI as well as the Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar allotted the party’s name and election symbol to the Ajit Pawar-led faction.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, both the factions contested the polls only on two seats — Baramati and Shirur — and the Sharad Pawar-led party won both of them. Consequently, the state assembly elections were seen as the real test of the NCP factions after they put up candidates against each other on 40 seats.
Ajit Pawar came out victorious on 13 seats from western Maharashtra that has been the NCP’s bastion and was able to overcome intense efforts by the Sharad Pawar camp. Key seats among these were Baramati, Ambegaon, Indapur, Kagal, Hadapsar, Kopargaon, Shirur, Phaltan, Parner, Pimpri, Akole, Wai and Ahmednagar City.
Sanjay Tatkare, spokesperson for the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, said that the people recognised them as the original NCP.
“The very fact that we could retain our numbers… we were head-to-head in 40 seats and we won 29. The voters have recognised us as the original NCP and the same will be communicated to the Supreme Court and I am sure that we will get favourable results,” he said.