Pune, July 21: In a surprise announcement, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) National President and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday said that the party will contest the local and civic body elections in Maharashtra independently.

“NCP fought the Lok Sabha elections together with MahaYuti allies. The party will fight the ensuing Assembly election also with allies. However, we will contest the civic and local body elections independently,” the Deputy Chief Minister said at a meeting with party workers in Pimpri Chinchwad, where a few days back 28 NCP workers joined the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

He asked the party workers to gear up not only for the Assembly election but also for the local and civic body elections for NCP’s victory.

This will be the first time NCP will try its luck going solo in the local and civic body elections after Ajit Pawar walked out of the party headed by Sharad Pawar in July 2023.

NCP lacks a major presence in Mumbai and a couple of other cities though it has a sizable presence in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad.

The party also faces a huge challenge to further strengthen the party organisation in various districts and other cities for contesting the local and civic body polls independently.

The timing of Pawar’s announcement to go solo in local and civic body elections coincided with the state BJP convention which was addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah who exhorted the party workers to strive for the victory of not only Kamal (lotus) but also of allies the Shiv Sena and NCP in the Assembly election for the formation of MahaYuti government.

On Friday, the state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that the party intends to contest not just the Assembly election with Shiv Sena and NCP but also the upcoming polls to the local and civic bodies.

He had asked the party cadres to step up outreach with the voters for the same.

Pawar has dropped sufficient hints that the MahaYuti will remain till the Assembly election while three parties may choose to independently contest elections to the zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and municipal corporations.

The elections to the 27 municipal corporations, 25 zilla parishads and a couple of municipalities have been pending for almost two years.

Pawar’s announcement comes after the RSS-linked Marathi weekly ‘Vivek’ said that BJP workers did not like the party's move to join hands with the NCP.

Earlier, another RSS-linked magazine ‘Organiser’ had also observed that the Lok Sabha results came as a reality check for the overconfident BJP while questioning its move to tie up with NCP ahead of the general elections.

--IANS

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