Chandrakant Patil dismisses reports of merger talks between Sharad and Ajit Pawar camps

Maharashtra cabinet minister and BJP leader Chandrakant Patil on Wednesday played down the growing buzz around a possible merger between the two rival factions of the Nationalist Congress Party. He said that such talk has come up before but has never led to any concrete developments.

“The rumoured merger has never taken shape. It has always remained a matter of speculation. It's only a talking point, nothing has materialised,” Patil told reporters in Pune.

This response comes shortly after Sharad Pawar had indicated he was open to the idea of a reunion, but left the decision to his daughter Supriya Sule and nephew Ajit Pawar . Patil, however, appeared dismissive of any serious discussions within the NCP camps.

He added that the original NCP, before the 2023 split, was effectively controlled by three individuals—Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule, and Ajit Pawar. Others in the party, such as Jayant Patil and MLA Rohit Pawar (Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew), had little influence and were only observing the political moves from the sidelines, he said.

The NCP had split in July 2023 when Ajit Pawar joined the BJP-Shiv Sena-led Mahayuti government, taking several MLAs with him. He later gained control of the party’s official name and symbol. Sharad Pawar had to rebrand his faction as NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) with a new identity. Ajit Pawar’s faction outperformed Sharad Pawar’s in the last state elections, winning 41 assembly seats.