With a cloud hanging over the future of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction, Mr. Pawar’s allies in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — the Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) — have respectively begun taking stock of all 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
Mr. Pawar’s repeated meetings with his nephew, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, despite the latter splitting the NCP last month to align with the ruling BJP-Eknath Shinde government, has prompted the Sena (UBT) and the Congress to suspect that Pawar senior’s faction may ally with the BJP in the future, despite his denials of it.
According to sources, the two MVA parties are preparing for the 2024 General Election knowing they might have to go without Mr. Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction, despite the latter’s assurance that his NCP faction would have nothing to do with the BJP.
