Both NCP factions planning parallel foundation day events on June 10

Mumbai: Twenty-five years after Sharad Pawar founded the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and a year after the party saw a split, parallel foundation day celebrations will be held on June 10, 2024.

The foundation day comes just after the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections and in the run-up to the the Vidhan Sabha elections, slated to be held in October. 

While Ajit Pawar-led NCP is planning the foundation day celebrations in Mumbai, the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) will conduct the festivities in Ahmednagar district.

Days after the foundation day festivities in 2023, Ajit Pawar walked out of his uncle and mentor’s fold and joined the BJP-led NDA camp to become Deputy Chief Minister alongside’s BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis in the Maha Yuti government headed by Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde.

The BJP-led Maha Yuti (NDA) has got a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls in 48 seats of Maharashtra at the hands of Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (I.N.D.I.A.).

In the elections, the I.N.D.I.A. bloc won 30 seats - Congress bagged 13, followed by Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) with 9, and NCP (SP) winning in 8. On the other hand, BJP won 9 seats, Shiv Sena clinched 7, and Ajit Pawar-led NCP secured victory in 1. A Congress rebel won 1 seat as an Independent. 

Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) contested in 10 seats and won 8 - clocking the best strike rate in the state. 

NCP contested in just one constituency - Raigad, where state president and sitting MP Sunil Tatkare emerged victorious.

The biggest setback that Ajit Pawar got was from the Baramati constituency, where his wife Sunetra Pawar was defeated by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes by sitting MP Supriya Sule, the daughter of Sharad Pawar.

Besides Supriya Sule, the other MPs representing NCP (SP) are Dr Amol Kolhe (Shirur), Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil (Madha), Nilesh Lanke (Ahmednagar), Bajrang Sonawane (Beed), Amar Kale (Wardha), Bhaskar Bagare (Dindori-ST), and Suresh Mhatre alias Balya Mama (Bhiwandi). 

Apart from Supriya Sule and Dr Kolhe, all others others are first-time MPs. 

The seats in which Sharad Pawar led NCP (SP) failed to win are Satara and Raver. In Satara, party MLC and former minister Shashikant Shinde was defeated by BJP’s Shrimant Chhatrapati Udayan Raje Bhosale, the 13th direct descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. On Raver, sitting BJP MP Raksha Khadse defeated Shriram Patil of NCP (SP). Incidentally, Raksha Khadse is the daughter-in-law of NCP (SP) MLC Eknath Khadse, who is heading back to the BJP, his parent party. Khadse’s daughter Rohini Khadse is currently the women's wing chief of NCP (SP).

As far as Ajit Pawar's party is concerned, his candidates lost in Shirur, Baramati and Osmanabad.