Pune Civic Polls: NCP-NCP (SP) Talks Collapse, Sharad Pawar’s Party Moves Back to MVA Alliance

The alliance talks between the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and NCP (SP) for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections have fallen apart, prompting the Sharad Pawar-led NCP to swiftly renew discussions with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners. Talks resumed Friday evening as the parties worked toward a seat-sharing arrangement.

MP Supriya Sule, working president of NCP (SP), confirmed the breakdown, stating, “Yes, our alliance talks with NCP have broken down. There will be no alliance,” in an interview with The Indian Express on Saturday.The deadlock reportedly arose when the NCP insisted that NCP (SP) candidates contest using the NCP’s ‘clock’ election symbol.

The NCP (SP) refused, asserting that it is a separate party with its own distinct identity.NCP (SP) spokesperson Ankush Kakade explained, “We had not declared plans to contest PMC elections with NCP. The NCP approached us, but we conveyed that NCP (SP) will contest the civic polls alongside Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), who are MVA partners.”Earlier, an NCP (SP) delegation met with NCP chief Ajit Pawar to discuss seat-sharing, but the NCP’s offer of a limited number of seats was deemed unacceptable by NCP (SP).

Kakade added that NCP (SP) had always preferred contesting the PMC polls as part of the MVA alliance, but Congress unexpectedly decided to contest independently. Late Friday, leaders from Congress, NCP (SP), and Shiv Sena (UBT) met in Pune to discuss seat-sharing. “Our relations with MVA remain intact, and discussions are ongoing,” Sule affirmed.

However, NCP state president Sunil Tatkare stated that talks with NCP (SP) are still in progress. “To my knowledge, discussions continue. Ajit Pawar has been handling Pune city affairs since 1999 and remains engaged with NCP (SP) leaders,” he said.Pune city Congress president Arvind Shinde confirmed that MVA talks have commenced, noting that “Besides Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders participated in meetings yesterday and today.”

The Congress outlined that of the 165 PMC seats, each of the three parties will contest approximately 50 to 55 seats, emphasizing, “All three are equally strong, and each will get a similar number of seats.”Regarding the possible inclusion of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Shinde clarified, “MNS is not part of MVA. We have informed Sena about this as well.”