Maharashtra‘s political temperature rose on Monday. Six senior NCP leaders met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, but party president Sunetra Pawar and her son Parth Pawar were not there.
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Finance Ministry Demand Puts NCP In The Spotlight
The delegation included Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Chhagan Bhujbal and Dhananjay Munde. They asked Shah to return the Finance Ministry to the NCP in the Maharashtra government. The demand is not new. On October 25, Sunetra Pawar herself led a senior delegation to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to press for the same portfolio.
Why The Pawars’ Absence Matters
Sunetra Pawar is Deputy Chief Minister and NCP national president, and Parth Pawar is a Rajya Sabha MP. Their absence immediately raised questions about who is steering the party. It also fuelled speculation that the BJP could be weighing a merger of the two NCP factions to strengthen the NDA, possibly leaving both of them out.
NCP Rejects Sidelining Claims
The party moved quickly to cool the debate. National spokesperson Umesh Patil called the sidelining reports “incorrect, baseless and misleading” and said the party remains united under Sunetra Pawar. He added that the meeting was pre-scheduled. According to him, Sunetra and Parth had already met Shah after Ajit Pawar’s death in a plane crash earlier this year, and she had told him a senior delegation would follow.
Merger Talk Refuses To Die
Merger chatter has followed the NCP all year. Veteran leader Sharad Pawar has said there is “no question” of the two factions coming together. In July, reports said Parth Pawar met Fadnavis to say that he and Sunetra were unaware of a meeting between senior NCP leaders and the Chief Minister.
