Ajit Pawar's mother, NCP leaders call for 'reunion' of Dy CM, Sharad Pawar after Maharashtra elections. BJP says...

Almost a month after the Maharashtra assembly polls are done and dusted, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's mother Ashatai Pawar wished for the reunion of Ajit and his uncle and NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar.

Well, she is not the only one wishing for the reunion of the Pawars. Leaders of both the factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) want the reunion of Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and his uncle and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar. 

Ajit Pawar's mother Ashatai Pawar visited the temple town of Pandharpur and expressd her wish for the reunion of the Pawars. Speaking to reporters outside the Vitthal-Rukmini temple, she said: "I wished that the differences within the Pawar family end at the earliest. I hope Pandurang answers my prayers."

The possibility of a reconciliation was triggered after Ajit Pawar, along with his family and senior NCP members, visited his uncle's home in Delhi on December 12 to wish him on his birthday. This was the two leaders' first meeting since their split. 

Calling Sharad Pawar "our deity", NCP Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel said that party leaders hold him in high regard.

"Sharad Pawar is our deity. We have a high degree of respect for him. If the Pawar family comes together, it will make us extremely happy. I consider myself a member of the Pawar family," Patel said.

Senior NCP leader Narhari Zirwal said that after the split in June 2023, "it felt odd to have left Sharad Pawar saheb." He added that he is not the only one in the ruling NCP who feels this way. 

"Now I will go to him and urge him (and Ajit) to come together. Pawar saheb has been relentlessly working for people from different sections of the society. And he continues to do so," Zirwal was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. 

NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari said the two leaders can come together if they make the effort. Mitkari, however, claimed NCP (SP) leaders like Jitendra Awhad and Rohit Pawar could prove to be a "hurdle" in this endeavour. 

"They will never like the two coming together... But Asha tai's prayers are the prayer of every karyakarta of both NCP groups... We all feel we should come together."

Commenting on this, Awhad said that the Pawars have to decide for themselves on this issue.

Meanwhile, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that the saffron party would have no qualms with the Pawars' reunion. Bawankule stated that if the two Pawars were coming together, the BJP had "no reason" to "object" to the same. "They have to decide," he added. 

In the recently conducted Maharashtra assembly elections, the NCP(SP) logged its weakest-ever performance with just 10 seats of the total 288 assembly seats in its kitty. Ajit Pawar-led NCP, on the other hand, won 41 of the 59 seats it contested, making it the third largest party in the state.