Mumbai: Amid uncertainty over a attainable reunion between the 2 factions of the Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP) following the demise of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, leaders from each camps have now dominated out any such transfer.

Chatting with the media, NCP (Sharad Pawar) MP Supriya Sule stated the difficulty of a merger between the Sharad Pawar-led faction and the Ajit Pawar-led faction had been mentioned earlier with former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who died in a airplane crash on 28 January.

Her nephew and NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar reiterated Sule’s place.

“The subject is over now. We held conferences with Ajit dada. Whether or not to go together with the NDA or whether or not Ajit Dada would exit the alliance and take the combat to the streets—this was what we mentioned with him,” Rohit stated.

“However now that Ajit dada is gone, discussing that is irrelevant. For us, the merger problem ended the second he handed away,” he added.

Rohit stated leaders from the opposite NCP faction had been elevating the merger problem “solely to oppose “Pawar saheb, Supriya Sule and me and stay politically related and seem highly effective”.

He added that conferences on the difficulty used to happen at Jayant Patil’s residence, a senior NCP (SP) chief—and claimed that CCTV footage from minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha’s home, the BJP chief and Maharashtra Minister for Talent Growth, whose residence is positioned reverse Patil’s, may function proof.

On Monday evening, after a gathering of NCP MLAs convened by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, the get together’s state president Sunil Tatkare advised the media {that a} merger was not on the agenda and that MLAs had been instructed not to talk about it.

Instantly after Ajit Pawar’s demise, a number of leaders from the NCP (SP) stated he had been discussing a attainable reunion of the 2 get together factions. Some, together with Anil Deshmukh, former dwelling minister of Maharashtra, claimed {that a} merger was his “final want” and must be honoured. Leaders from the Ajit Pawar-led faction, nonetheless, had been extra guarded. Praful Patel, who was the previous Union civil aviation minister, amongst others, denied that Ajit Pawar had held any such discussions earlier than his demise.

For months, there was widespread hypothesis that the 2 factions of NCP would merge. After a poor displaying within the 2024 Meeting elections—with Sharad Pawar’s faction successful simply 10 seats within the 288-member home—the get together’s fortunes started to say no.

In December 2025, the Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions contested the municipal company elections in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad collectively, however couldn’t take management of both municipal our bodies.

The 2 sides deliberate to combat the February Zilla Parishad (district council) polls on a typical platform, utilizing the identical image—the clock—and there was speak of a proper merger after these elections. Nonetheless, the demise of Ajit Pawar on 28 January halted these discussions.

Sharad Pawar advised reporters the merger had progressed and was resulting from be introduced on 12 February, however each factions have now suspended talks.

(Edited by Shashank Kishan)

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