PUNE: The mortal remains of Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar were on Thursday brought to his residence in Katewadi ahead of his last rites.Funeral preparations are underway at the Vidya Pratishthan ground in Baramati for the Nationalist Congress leader who lost his life in a plane crash on Wednesday.NCP has always been associated with the Pawar family, nobody has thought of a member other than one from the Pawar family leading either group. Considering the sympathy factor, Sunetra can be the option to not only lead the party but also negotiate merger talks with the other group, who are also part of her family,” political analyst Prakash Pawar said. However, a decision to merge will not be easy. On the one hand, senior NCP MLAs, who are part of the Mahayuti govt, will insist on continuing in govt, while those with Sharad Pawar’s group in opposition will not want their group to compromise on Phule-Ambedkar-Shahu’s ideology. Ajit Pawar’s presence helped the Pawars carry out a balancing act. Now the two groups will have to arrive at a joint political stand. NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and its working president, Supriya Sule, will have to take a call on joining the NDA at the national level and Mahayuti at the state level, if they want to take ownership of the NCP merger, because asking NCP MLAs to step out of the Mahayuti alliance may lead to some of them switching to Shiv Sena or BJP. The other scenario is if 85-year-old Sharad Pawar, whose ill health has kept him from electioneering after the assembly election in 2024, takes the lead for a merger. Prakash Pawar said Sharad Pawar could get Supriya and state NCP (SP) chief Jayant Patil to revive the party, but its political stand will have to be clear. NCP state president Sunil Tatkare and working president Praful Patel are likely to play important roles in deciding its path, but they lack overall acceptance within their group and don’t enjoy a mass base like the Pawars.
