Sunetra Pawar meets Fadnavis, NCP merger buzz grows ahead of Amit Shah talks

Résumé détaillé

A conversation at Pune airport has put the NCP merger question back in play. Fadnavis says it never came up in his meeting with Sunetra Pawar, who is expected to speak with Amit Shah again on Monday.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai on Sunday and later spoke with Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Pune airport, renewing speculation about a merger of the two Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) factions.

Fadnavis said his meeting with Sunetra had nothing to do with a merger. Sunetra and her son Parth Pawar are expected to hold further talks with Shah on Monday. The agenda remains unclear.

When asked about a possible merger in Baramati on November 11, Sunetra said, “You will know when the time comes.”

Shah is in Pune for a Zilla Parishad programme on Monday to unveil a statue of the late Ajit Pawar. The event is now expected to last 40 minutes instead of 20, fuelling speculation that Shah may meet NCP leaders during his visit.

Shah was also expected to attend the opening of a marathon organised by Union Minister Murlidhar Mohol on Sunday, but the event went ahead without him.

His public schedule lists no major engagements between Sunday evening and Monday morning.

Sunetra’s meetings came a day after NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Supriya Sule said the two factions had discussed a merger and even agreed on a date while Ajit Pawar was alive. She said her faction had closed the matter after his death.

“As long as Ajit Pawar was there, talks were underway, and a date had also been decided. But after my brother passed away, a full stop was put to the matter from our side,” Sule said on Saturday.

Sule said she had received no communication from Sunetra’s faction about reviving the talks and would stop commenting on the issue.

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