Can Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar join hands? Fadnavis has a reply

MAharashtra chief government minister Devendra Fadnavis on tues said he was non ruling come out the possibleness of the two Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar coming together in the future, even as he described their current understanding in a few civic bodies as a limited, local arrangement.Speaking to the media on the last day of campaigning for the January 15 civic body elections, Fadnavis was asked about the Sharad Pawar–Ajit Pawar alliance in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad. He said the two sides were fighting together only in a couple of municipal corporations and had not merged formally.“They are contesting in alliance in just two bodies. They have not merged officially. This is more of a local phenomenon - leaders from both sides are trying to project that they are fighting together to keep their flock together,” Fadnavis said.However, the chief minister made it clear that he was wary of dismissing the possibility of a broader reunion between the two factions, citing Maharashtra’s recent political history.“Yet, bearing in mind the 2019 experience - when an undivided Shiv Sena joined hands with Congress and the NCP to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi - I am cautious about this development and not dismissing any possibility,” he said, adding that the Mahayuti would respond if such a realignment were to happen. “If they come together in the future, we will think about it at that time.”The comments come amid speculation triggered by the two Pawar-led NCP groups coming together in parts of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad for the civic polls, despite being bitter rivals at the state level.Fadnavis also suggested that the local tie-up was aimed more at managing internal party equations than signalling a larger political shift.According to him, leaders on both sides were using the alliance to “keep their flock together” in tightly contested municipal races.The chief minister was speaking after an intensive campaign in which he said the ruling Mahayuti - comprising the BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP - was poised to win key municipal corporations, including Mumbai, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Nashik.While projecting confidence about the Mahayuti’s prospects, Fadnavis acknowledged that Maharashtra’s volatile alliance politics meant even unlikely combinations could not be ruled out, especially in the run-up to larger state and national contests later this year.