Pawar meets NCP brass today

Convenes a close door meeting on Sunday with select leaders

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has convened a closed-door meeting on Sunday with party seniors and ministers in Maharashtra to review preparations for next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

He is also expected to review how to revive its image in the state, apart from expanding the direct contact with voters. The NCP's image had taken a  beating in the wake of corruption charges against its ministers The party rules the state in a coalition with the Congress party.

The NCP has already said they’re ready to contest the general elections in alliance with the Congress; the latter has yet to formally say so. Pawar, the Union agriculture minister since 2004, has already said he will not contest the Lok Sabha elections, to pave way for younger leaders. He isn’t exiting the Centre, though; the NCP is set to send him to Parliament through the Rajya Sabha.

During the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, all the 48 seats in the state were contested by the ruling alliance, 26 by the Congress (it won 17) and 22 by the NCP (it won eight). Since its inception in 1999, the NCP has failed to touch double digits in the Lok Sabha elections from Maharashtra.  

It has indicated readiness to continue the 26-22 seat sharing formula, beside hinting it can exchange some of its seats with the Congress.

Party leaders, including deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, have been  vocal that the NCP needs to improve its tally to 15 to raise its bargaining power in national politics and, thereby, spread its wings in  Maharashtra ahead of the next assembly elections.

State NCP chief Bhaskar Jadhav told Business Standard: “The Lok Sabha election is the only agenda for Sunday's meeting convened by Pawar.”

The meeting comes on the heels of the NCP's crushing defeat from the Congress last week in elections to the 76-member Sangli Miraj Kupwad Municipal Corporation. They’d fought separately and it was a major setback for the NCP in its bastion of western Maharashtra. Sunday's meeting is also the first strategy session since the NCP reshuffled its ministers on June 11.

Also, a large number of Congress ministers, leaders and others have been openly demanding a break with the NCP alliance. They feel the NCP now brings more liability than benefits and the Congress would be able to further consolidate by going alone in the general elections. There is especial resentment as NCP criticism against the party's seniors, including chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.