NCP MLAs tell Sunetra Pawar at Devgiri meeting they are not getting funds

Amid infighting in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the party's MLAs held an important meeting at the Devgiri bungalow in Mumbai on Tuesday night. Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar was present. The meeting ran for about four hours and was heated, with MLAs openly placing their grievances before the leadership.

At the start of the meeting, Sunetra Pawar made it clear that there was to be no politics, only complaints and suggestions. The MLAs then spoke one by one.

The biggest complaint of nearly all the MLAs was that they were not getting funds. They said the party is in power, yet work is not getting done. Some MLAs also complained that work was not being done on the side of Eknath Shinde.

A woman MLA from Nashik district said that although so much work related to the Kumbh Mela is under way, the BJP is sidelining the NCP in it. She complained that the party was not even being consulted on any of these works. Another MLA from Nashik raised a similar point and voiced concern that if funds were not received, he could lose the next election by the same margin of votes with which he was elected.

Another MLA expressed concern over the growing high-handedness of the BJP in Satara. He said the BJP's high-handedness had increased in Satara district and described how he had been harassed during the Zilla Parishad election. For that reason, according to him, he later contested the district bank election together with the Shiv Sena. He conveyed this to Sunetra Pawar.

The MLAs also referred to the disputes among the party's senior leaders. They said very little about these quarrels reaches them. The MLAs also expressed the feeling that the party is being weakened by the conflict between its young and senior leaders.

Sunetra Pawar heard out all the complaints. How she responded, or what assurance she gave the MLAs, is not yet known. The NCP core committee is to meet at 9 am on Wednesday, and all eyes are on what happens there.