Amit Shah to unveil Ajit Pawar statue in Pune amid NCP merger speculation

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Pune district on November 15 and 16, amid speculation about a possible merger of the two NCP factions.

On November 15, Shah will lay the foundation stone of a cooperative industrial unit at Talegaon Dabhade. He will then visit the Bharat Forge unit at Mundhwa. He will stay overnight in Pune on Sunday. He is expected to meet senior leaders and office-bearers of the BJP, the NCP and the Shiv Sena during this time. He may also flag off the Pune Marathon.

On November 16, Shah will unveil a statue of Ajit Pawar, former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and NCP president, at the Pune Zilla Parishad premises. NCP legislators, ministers, MPs and other office-bearers are expected to attend. The state's public relations department has confirmed the event.

According to NCP sources, the formal request to unveil the statue was made by Deputy Chief Minister and NCP chief Sunetra Pawar. Party leaders may also discuss issues related to the Mahayuti alliance and the NDA with Shah.

The visit comes a few days after Sunetra Pawar and her son, NCP MP Parth Pawar, met Shah in New Delhi. The discussion is said to have covered the demand that the finance portfolio be returned to the NCP and the possibility of a merger of the two NCP factions.

A group of NCP leaders also met Shah. It included Praful Patel, state president Sunil Tatkare, former Assembly Speaker Dilip Walse Patil, ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Hasan Mushrif, and former minister Dhananjay Munde. The discussion is said to have focused on the party's functioning and tension between senior and younger leaders.

NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) working president and Baramati MP Supriya Sule has categorically denied that any merger talks are under way between the NCP (SP) led by Sharad Pawar and the ruling NCP faction led by Sunetra Pawar. Sule said, "We have not received any proposal for a merger." She also said that, for her, the issue ended on the day her brother Ajit Pawar died. According to her, no one had spoken to her about it.

Speculation intensified when NCP Maharashtra president Sunil Tatkare said that merger talks were on while Ajit Pawar was alive, and that it could have happened in February had he not died in the plane crash.

Some recent developments have also fuelled the talk. Prime Minister Narendra Modi phoned Sharad Pawar while he was in hospital. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel then went to see him. Parth Pawar then visited Sharad Pawar's residence, Silver Oak, in Mumbai on two consecutive days.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that only Sharad Pawar and Sunetra Pawar can say whether the two NCP factions will come together. He said the BJP has not been informed of any such move.

Fadnavis also said any merger would require the participation of the ruling alliance. He said, "If they decide to merge, they will come and tell us, because a merger cannot happen without us. So far, neither of them has told us anything."

Asked about the possibility of the factions uniting during her Pune visit on Wednesday, Sunetra Pawar did not rule it out directly. She said, "In time, all of you will come to know everything."