Ajit Pawar: NCP's Local Polls Split from Mahayuti "Nothing Different"

According to Pawar, allying with Sharad Pawar's NCP faction for the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad election could lead to the vote share being consolidated, which would itself help them.

He recalled how the NCP and Congress allied for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections but contested the local body elections separately, he said that a similar situation was with the BJP and Shiv Sena too.

"Since I've been in politics, in all the elections we've fought since 1999, we had an alliance with the Congress. We were working together in the Lok Sabha, in Parliament, and fighting elections together. We were fighting on our respective symbols. The same thing happened in the Assembly elections. But in local body elections, to support and empower our respective party workers, we always fought against each other," Pawar told ANI in an exclusive interview.

"The same thing happened with the BJP and Shiv Sena. In the last 2017 elections in Mumbai and Thane; they were fighting against each other. So, there's no need to think that something very different is happening here," he added.

However, Pawar has also affirmed that the three parties contesting separately, BJP, NCP, and Shiv, against each other in local body polls have affirmed that the local body polls will not impact the functioning of the Mahrashtra state government, even after results are declared on January 16.

When asked about the coming together of estranged family members for the local elections, Pawar expressed happiness over the situation, including the Thackeray's in Mumbai, and the Pawars in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. He said that it is due to the demands of the party workers did the two parties decide to contest together, which he hopes would led to less of a divide on their vote bases.

"I see it in a good light, this is very good. It is because of the karyakartas we had decided to fight elections together (the two NCP factions), because if we fight elections separately then the votes will be divided, that will not happen. The karyakartas want win elections, we fought the state and Lok Sabha elections. After they had a proposal, our party's leaders sat together, at first no common ground was reached," he said.

Despite some setbacks before, Pawar said that some fake news was also spread which did not help the alliance, "But later on, some wrong news was spread, that Ajit Pawar is demanding only to fight with the clock symbol, what is the reason to say this? I never said this."

"When Congress used to fight, when BJP, Shiv Sena fought alone then they have their own symbol," he added.

However, Pawar also expressed that the Mahayuti partner, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena had not approached him for the alliance at first, and when they did, it was too late as all the nomination forms had already been filled.

"The talks started when the my karyakartas told us, and their karyakartas told them, that it will be better if we do this (alliance with other NCP faction). We tried to take Shiv Sena in alliance, they didn't come to us. They came later, but by that time the time was up, forms had been filled," he said.

When asked about the future of the NCP-NCP alliance, Ajit Pawar said that they have "not thought about this" and are instead focusing on the polling which is set to happen two days later on January 15.

"We have not thought anything about this, because today is last day of campaigning, first we will do that, discuss on how voting can happen properly, so we have not thought of this (a long term alliance)."

He said for such a decision, the leaders of both sides have to be taken into confidence too, and not just workers, "Not just karyakartas, we need to talk to other leaders too because the party is functioning with them, and they have to talk with their leaders."

The polling for 29 municipal corporation elections across the state, including Mumbai, Pune, and Pimpri-Chinchwad, is scheduled for January 15. The vote counting will take place on January 16.

- ANI