Sonwane and Pandit seen together at Beed drought work amid NCP merger talk

When NCP (Sharad Pawar) president Sharad Pawar was admitted to hospital, NCP (Ajit Pawar) leader Praful Patel went to see him there. Since that meeting, talk of a merger of the two NCP factions has started again.

Meanwhile, Sunil Tatkare, state president of the Ajit Pawar faction, said clearly that no talks on a merger have taken place. He also said that had Ajit Pawar been alive today, the merger would have happened on February 12 itself.

For the past few days, meetings have been going on at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar. A few days ago, key leaders of the Sharad Pawar faction met him. Parth Pawar has since also met Sharad Pawar once or twice. In view of these meetings, the question being raised in Maharashtra politics is whether the two NCP factions will merge.

Amid this talk, a report has come from Beed in which the two NCP representatives were seen together. It concerns the Mankarnika dam in Beed taluka, where a silt-sowing programme was held as part of drought-relief measures. MP Bajrang Sonwane of the Sharad Pawar faction and MLA Vijaysinh Pandit of the Ajit Pawar faction were present at the programme.

During the silt sowing, Sonwane did the sowing while Pandit held the rope at the time. The two leaders did not merely appear at the same place; at the work site they also asked after each other's well-being. They were also seen talking for a long while.

Thus, even as meetings are being held at Sharad Pawar's residence and questions are being raised about a merger, in Beed an MP of the Sharad Pawar faction and an MLA of the Ajit Pawar faction were seen working together at the same programme.