Seven NCP leaders meet Amit Shah in Delhi; party says Sunetra Pawar authorised it

A group of senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders from the Ajit Pawar faction travelled to Delhi and called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah. A photograph of the meeting went viral, and it has stirred fresh debate in Maharashtra politics.

Seven leaders were present: state president Sunil Tatkare, Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, Sameer Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde, Hasan Mushrif and Dilip Walse Patil. Party president and Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar was not in the room. Parth Pawar and Jay Pawar were also absent. Because so many senior figures met Shah without the party chief, political circles have asked whether a different equation is forming within the leadership, and the meeting is not being treated as a routine courtesy call.

The backdrop is the party's poor showing in the Legislative Council election. In the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduates' constituency, the NCP fielded Satish Chavan, a three-time member of the Council. He lost to Pratapsingh Patil, the candidate of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar). Talk of infighting and of questions over the leadership has followed the result.

Soon after the defeat, Praful Patel posted on X that the party needed to introspect. He called the result a clear and urgent warning and said the party must reset its priorities and strengthen its organisation to win back public trust. His remarks fed the talk of discontent. Sunetra Pawar had earlier said there were no differences of any kind in the party. She added that victory and defeat are part of elections, but that a defeat calls for introspection, which the party would certainly undertake.

NCP spokesperson Umesh Pawar has sought to settle the speculation. He said the meeting had been fixed in advance, to take up some issues from the time of Ajit Pawar and important questions facing the state. On Sunetra Pawar's absence, he said she had herself informed Amit Shah that a delegation of senior leaders would call on him and had asked him to give them time. In his account, the leaders met Shah on her instructions.

According to sources, the discussion with Shah covered the drought-like situation in the state, and a memorandum on the subject was reportedly submitted. Other reports said the party's political strategy in Maharashtra and the allocation of portfolios may also have come up, though no official account of the talks has been given.

Another important event follows. The NCP core committee will meet in Mumbai at 4 pm on Monday at Sunetra Pawar's official residence, 'Devgiri'. The agenda is likely to include a review of the Council election defeat, an assessment of the organisation's present condition and a decision on the party's next political course. With the Delhi meeting done and the core committee session ahead, attention in the state is on what strategy the NCP settles on.