Is leadership tussle in post-Ajit Pawar NCP reaching a boiling point?

The differences within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) seem to have reached a boiling point, with two senior leaders clashing before Maharashtra deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar in a meeting of the party in Mumbai on May 26. Senior leader and former Union minister Praful Patel was absent from the interaction, deepening the speculation about intra-party conflict with the Pawars, who are seeing as trying to tighten grip after the demise of Ajit Pawar in an air crash in January.

Earlier, Sunetra’s letter to the Election Commission (EC) in March had set the cat among the pigeons. In the communication, she said any correspondence from the NCP to the EC between January 28 and February 26 (after she took the reins of the party) should not be considered. This was seen as a blow to NCP working president Patel and Sunil Tatkare, who is the Lok Sabha MP from Raigad, the NCP’s Maharashtra chief as well as the party’s national general secretary.

It is claimed that Patel and Tatkare had written to the EC that the NCP constitution had been amended and all powers were now vested with the working president. This was read as an attempt to take over the party organisation. During Ajit’s time, Patel and Tatkare were seen as in-charge of the party organisation.

In the meeting on May 26—attended by party ministers, legislators and office-bearers—Tatkare clashed with Maharashtra food and civil supplies minister and senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal. He was said to be miffed over no senior leader apparently defending him and Patel while they were being taken on by the leadership.

Two senior leaders present revealed that Bhujbal had asked Tatkare to “come to the point” and stop repeating himself. That provoked Tatkare. Sunetra then tried to soothe ruffled feathers by asking party leaders and spokespersons to take an aggressive stand while defending the NCP and its leadership in the media. However, the two were part of a party meeting later.

Sunetra is said to have expressed resentment that the BJP had taken over the finance portfolio—Ajit was deputy chief minister and finance minister at the time of his demise. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has kept the finance portfolio, presented the budget for 2026-27.

Bhujbal is said to have stressed that the NCP should prepare to contest the 2029 assembly elections on its own merit, and pointed to how the BJP was preparing to do likewise.

Sources say Sunetra’s increasing dependence on elder son Parth, who is a Rajya Sabha MP and a rising power centre in the NCP, has led to unease among sections of the established leadership. Parth is said to be trying to create a new team, and the rise of former Union minister Subodh Mohite has also led to unease in the old guard. The nomination of Vikram Kakade, the son of Pune-based developer and former BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kakade, from the Pune Local Bodies constituency to the Maharashtra legislative council, also has Parth’s imprint.

Mohite was a personal assistant to senior BJP leader Mahadevrao Shivankar, who was finance minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP regime led by Manohar Joshi. He transitioned into politics via the Shiv Sena. Mohite was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Ramtek Lok Sabha seat in 1999 and 2004. However, he followed former chief minister Narayan Rane into the Congress but lost the bypolls in 2007 to Prakash Jadhav of the Shiv Sena.

Mohite, who was Union heavy industries minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, also lost the 2009 assembly elections from Ramtek. He then spent years in the political wilderness before joining Maratha leader Vinayak Mete’s Bharatiya Sangram Parishad, the political arm of his outfit Shivasangram. Mohite joined the NCP shortly before Ajit’s demise, and is said to be increasingly taking charge of the party’s affairs in Delhi, elbowing out Patel and Tatkare.

Mohite and NCP general secretary Avinash Adik, the son of former minister Govindrao Adik, are also said to be in the reckoning for the Rajya Sabha bypoll after Sunetra vacated her seat in the upper house of Parliament.

What has also intensified speculation about a rift in the NCP’s senior leadership are reports of a purported audio clip in which a senior NCP leader is allegedly badmouthing Ajit (at the time he was alive) as well as Patel and Tatkare meeting NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) president Sharad Pawar in Mumbai.

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