Parth Pawar calls meeting at Jijai bungalow in Pune as NCP merger talk heats up

Moves towards a merger of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are gathering pace. According to sources, leaders from both the Sharad Pawar faction and the Ajitdada faction are talking to each other and working out a draft of the merger and its terms.

Meanwhile, a statement by Sanjay Raut has created something like an atmosphere of suspicion between the two NCP parties. Raut had said that 20 to 22 MLAs of Sunetra Pawar's party were in a mood to leave the party and were not meeting Sharad Pawar merely to chat. Following the statement, considerable unease is reported in the NCP camp.

It had emerged that for the past two days, calls have been made from Sunetra Pawar's office to all MLAs of the party. The MLAs were reportedly asked what their stand on the merger was and whether they had received a call from the Sharad Pawar faction.

On one side is Raut's statement. On the other, some MLAs of the Sharad Pawar faction have proposed going with the NDA as a separate group, and Rohit Pawar is against the merger. Because of all this, Sunetra Pawar's party is in turmoil at present. It is being said that Sunetra Pawar and Parth Pawar have become wary as a result. After the calls from Sunetra Pawar's office to all MLAs, Parth Pawar is now also reported to be active.

On Friday in Pune, a meeting of key NCP office-bearers and selected MLAs is being held in the presence of Parth Pawar. According to information received, seven MLAs of the party have already reached the Jijai bungalow for the meeting. Shankar Mandekar, MLA from Bhor, has just arrived.

Various guesses are being made in political circles about why Parth Pawar called the meeting so quickly and why only selected MLAs were invited. It is therefore being said that important developments on the merger process could follow in the next few hours.

In Delhi, key leaders of the Sharad Pawar and Ajitdada factions have arrived. MPs Supriya Sule, Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare are in Delhi today for a parliamentary committee meeting. Tatkare is chairman of the standing committee on petroleum and natural gas, while Sule and Patel are members of the finance committee. The meetings in Delhi will begin at 11.30 am. All eyes are on whether these leaders will meet one another during this time.