Maharashtra political crisis: Ajit Pawar's NCP faces major setback, top leaders resign to join Sharad Pawar

Ajit Pawar's NCP faced a major setback as many of its top leaders resigned to join Sharad Pawar's faction. The NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar, who is still reeling from the Lok Sabha poll debacle, saw its influential leaders of Pimpri-Chinchwad in Pune district join the Sharad Pawar group. 

Pimpri-Chinchwad president, Ajit Gavhane, is among those who have quit. Accompanying him are many former corporators from the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. This is a big blow to the Maharashtra deputy chief minister’s stronghold in Pune.

All of them have joined the “parent” NCP in Sharad Pawar's presence, indicating the continuation of the exodus from Ajit Pawar's NCP as Assembly polls near in Maharashtra. 

On top of this, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) on Wednesday also cited a report in an RSS-linked Marathi weekly to suggest the BJP is sending a subtle message to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led NCP to leave the ruling ‘Mahayuti’ alliance in Maharashtra.

Speaking to reporters here, NCP (SP) spokesperson Clyde Crasto said after the setback in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP is looking to win the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra but the saffron outfit realises the tie-up with the Ajit Pawar-led party is going to hurt its prospects.

Crasto maintained the BJP has begun to realise that taking Ajit Pawar, who joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government in July 2023, on board is causing trouble and the tie-up will not allow it to win elections.

So, they (BJP) are finding reasons to send across this message, said the spokesperson.

The BJP’s seat count in Maharashtra dropped drastically from 23 in 2019 to just nine in the recent Lok Sabha polls, with its ally Shiv Sena securing seven seats and the NCP, led by deputy CM Ajit Pawar, managing to win in just one constituency.

In contrast, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), and the Congress, put up an impressive show and collectively won 30 out of the 48 seats.

The 1999-founded NCP suffered a split when Ajit Pawar joined the Shinde-led government along with a section of party MLAs loyal to him.