Mumbai: Amid growing calls for reunification of the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party, the party leadership on Monday issued a clear directive to its MLAs to refrain from making public statements on a possible merger, signalling that any move towards bringing the factions together is off the table for now. The gag order was issued at a meeting of legislators held at ‘Devgiri’, the official residence of Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar.
The meeting also formally endorsed Pawar as the next national president of the party following the death of her husband and party chief Ajit Pawar in a plane crash on January 28. The decision was taken at a core committee meeting and subsequently backed by all MLAs through a show of hands. NCP working president Praful Patel later said that the election will be held in Mumbai on February 26 and that Sunetra Pawar is expected to be elected unopposed.
On the question of a merger with the Sharad Pawar-led faction, the leadership is understood to have sought clarity on why certain MLAs had been publicly advocating reunification. While some legislators have argued that a merger could strengthen their prospects in their constituencies, the leadership is keen to assess whether such demands stem from internal political calculations or external influences. For now, the message from the top is that there is no immediate need to pursue a merger, and the matter could be reviewed closer to 2028, a year before the next Assembly elections, depending on the political climate.
Several MLAs, including Narhari Zirwal, Anil Patil and Hiraman Khoskar, have publicly supported talks between the two factions. Khoskar had recently claimed that 30 to 35 MLAs favoured reunification and said he would raise the issue at the next legislators’ meeting. However, he skipped Monday’s meeting, citing personal reasons. State NCP president Sunil Tatkare said the merger issue was not discussed at the meeting and maintained that MLAs had authorised the leadership to take an appropriate decision on the matter.
Meanwhile, the party has decided to back Narhari Zirwal, who has come under scrutiny after a clerk in his office was allegedly caught accepting a bribe on the premises of the state secretariat. The leadership’s stand is that it will continue to support him unless direct evidence surfaces linking him to any wrongdoing. Party insiders indicated that isolating another senior leader at this juncture could prove counterproductive, especially after two other NCP ministers, Dhananjay Munde and Manikrao Kokate, had stepped down earlier.
