The unfortunate and tragic death of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has saddened the entire state and sent shockwaves through the political sphere. This incident will have long-term effects on politics in Maharashtra, but even in the short term it has caused major upheaval within Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is part of the ruling BJP-led NDA alliance at both the Centre and the state level. Much discussion now centres on whether the two factions of the NCP—one led by founder Sharad Pawar and the other previously led by Ajit Pawar—will unite in common interest. There had been significant buzz in political circles about meetings between the two sides to decide how they would contest local self-government polls together as one force.

Conflicting signals from party leaders
However, matters became confusing for party workers and activists in both factions, with leaders of the Ajit Pawar faction denying that there were any talks of a merger, while the Sharad Pawar group continued to state in the media that several meetings had taken place........

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