After a drubbing in the urban local body elections, being reduced to a supporting role in civic bodies and cornered in western Maharashtra, deputy chief minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Ajit Pawar faces the herculean task of ensuring his party’s existence in the upcoming Zilla Parishad elections.
He is not alone. His estranged uncle Sharad Pawar’s NCP-SP is relegated to the lowest tier among the state’s major political parties. By allying itself with the NCP, with which it has been fighting a legal battle since the split orchestrated by Ajit Pawar, the NCP-SP is fighting its battle for political survival.
After the upcoming Zilla Parishad (ZP) elections, the state will not witness elections until the Lok Sabha elections in 2029. The Pawars are now tasked with fighting the growing influence of the BJP in their own territory and safeguarding the party organization by achieving electoral victories.
On the last day of filing nominations for ZP polls, both parties decided to field joint candidates on one symbol, except Maval and Ambegaon on Pune district. They will strategically use the party’s respective symbols (the clock and the man blowing the trumpet) for the upcoming Zilla Parishad elections. Candidates will run using the symbol that is most advantageous in a particular electoral district.
The strategy was finalized by the leaders of both parties during a joint meeting after the municipal elections. Accordingly, NCP candidates will contest for both symbols in Pune district and other parts of the state.
While the legal battle over the party symbol has reached a decisive stage in the Supreme Court, the political understanding between the two factions appears equally significant. Regardless of the court’s final verdict, both parties have decided to contest the ZP elections with the same unity they demonstrated during the municipal elections.
“It is to avoid confusion among voters as a person will vote twice, for Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti. If we dispute one symbol, the confusion will be cleared up,” said an NCP minister on condition of anonymity.
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The urban local body polls have cornered deputy CM Ajit Pawar in his turf of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Having lost control of urban areas, a defeat in rural Pune will put it on a defensive path within the state government. The party won only three seats in Bombay and is unlikely to play a major role in the current fight for the mayor’s post between the BJP and Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena.
“The Sena and the BJP have their problems going on. We are not going to get involved in it because we have very little at stake,” the minister added.
Historically, western Maharashtra has remained a stronghold of Pawars with special focus on Pune, Satara and Solapur. To a large extent it was because the PNC was a party of local magnates in the cooperation sector. With the BJP coming to power, both in the state and at the Centre, these leaders slowly shifted their allegiance to the BJP. Furthermore, after the division of the PCN, the political force was divided. All of these districts have now escaped his control.
The Pawars are joining hands in a desperate bid to save their political empire in 12 districts that go to polls.