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Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Ajit Pawar is expected to make a “big announcement” during a press conference at 6:30 pm on Friday. This development comes just a day after Ajit Pawar was reported to have “walked out” of the state cabinet meeting within 10 minutes. About 38 decisions were taken during the cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Ajit Pawar’s NCP is part of the ruling grand alliance government in Maharashtra. The other members of the grand alliance are the BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. Ajit Pawar’s “big” announcement comes at a time when seat-sharing talks are going on between the grand alliance of parties ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Elections will be held on 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra in November-December this year.
NCP working president Praful Patel, state president Sunil Tatlare and Chhagan Bhujbal are expected to be present in the press conference. “He will make a big announcement regarding the upcoming assembly elections,” the Indian Express quoted the NCP as saying on Friday.
What is expected?
There is speculation that the announcement could either be related to the Maharashtra elections or the key leader joining the party on Friday.
Ajit Pawar and his NCP are under question after the poor performance of Mahayuti in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He had also expressed surprise over the Baramati election result when his cousin Supriya Sule defeated his wife Sunetra Pawar by a margin of over 1.58 lakh votes.
Speaking at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai in September, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “It is true that the core voters of the BJP had rejected the alliance with the NCP because we have been traditional rivals. But now, we Our stance is 80 percent successful in convincing.”
PTI quoted Fadnavis as saying that in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP got more seats than Shinde’s Sena (7) and Ajit Pawar’s NCP (1) – adding that these were breakaway parties and in a way were new parties.
There are rumors that BJP and Shiv Sena have sidelined NCP during seat sharing talks for the upcoming Maharashtra elections.
Ajit Pawar had rebelled against his uncle Sharad Pawar and joined BJP in July 2023. The BJP-Shiv Sena government in the state had appointed him as the Deputy CM of Maharashtra.
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