Ajit Pawar announces NCP-NCP (Sharad Pawar) alliance for upcoming civic body polls in Maharashtra

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP Chief Ajit Pawar on Sunday announced the much-anticipated alliance between NCP and NCP (Sharad Pawar) in Pimpri Chinchwad for the upcoming civil body polls. Elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including Mumbai and Pune, will be held on January 15.

During an election campaign rally, Pawar said, "While finalising the list of candidates for the Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal elections, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Nationalist Congress Party Sharadchandra Pawar faction decided to contest the polls together in Pimpri Chinchwad.

"Because of this, the family will come together once again. There were many questions in people’s minds about what would happen; many times, certain decisions have to be taken in the interest of Maharashtra’s development," he added.


The deputy CM also revealed that the two parties have discussed seat-sharing and will soon make an announcement on the same.

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Pawar's announcement comes at a time when senior pary leaders had ruled out possibilities of an alliance for Pune civic polls because of Ajit Pawar's insistence that candidates from the Sharad Pawar-led faction fight on his party's symbol.

Sources told ET that the NCP (SP) leadership refused to concede the demand as it would send a "wrong signal" that the faction had accepted Ajit Pawar's leadership.

Senior NCP (SP) leader Ankush Kakade said that his party leadership in Pune met Deputy CM Ajit Pawar on Friday but talks over the possible alliance for Pune civic polls could not progress.

Also read: NCP alliance talks collapse: Ajit Pawar faction demands symbol control for Pune civic polls

"No talks could take place over the alliance between us. We went to meet the NCP leaders to convey that NCP (SP) will contest the election on its symbol and they can fight on their symbol (if the alliance takes place ). It seems they are not ready for this proposal," Kakade said earlier.

The clock symbol belonged to the undivided NCP and was awarded to Ajit Pawar's faction by the Election Commission when it recognised his group as the original party. The Sharad Pawar faction subsequently adopted the 'trumpet and drum' (curved trumpet) symbol.

He added that the NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule is also of the opinion that since NCP (SP) has been with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the party will prefer to stay with its alliance partners - Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT).

(With inputs from agencies)