The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which has lost recognition as a national party, is currently in a state of confusion. From senior party leaders to first-time MLAs, all are anxious, even as informal meetings are underway to brainstorm.
As the current government of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde completes nine months, there are many theories about the final verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) the case of disqualification Shiv Sena MLAs.
Given the scenario, the NCP leaders are confused about their role and what next.
Most of the people’s representatives in the NCP are powerful leaders in their respective constituencies.
Sharad Pawar broke away from the Congress and formed the NCP. The NCP is known as a group of people’s representatives who are elected on the basis of their own might and work they have done for many years in their constituencies rather than the party.
Until 2014, the NCP, along with the Congress, enjoyed power at Centre and in Maharashtra. In 2014, for the first time they were hit by the Modi wave. Barely after five years of the Devendra Fadnavis government, when the Shiv Sena broke its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and rebelled, the NCP got a chance to sit in power once again as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) with Uddhav Thackeray as the CM. And this time, the NCP was more powerful than the Congress.
Despite coming to power, in the past two-and-a-half years, many leaders of the NCP faced crises, from the arrest of Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik to senior leaders such as Ajit Pawar and Hasan Mushrif being troubled by the central agencies.
The senior leaders fear who will be next.
The first-time MLAs are worried about the 2024 elections. During the Uddhav Thackeray regime, these MLAs received huge funds for development works. But deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis has now stopped it. Not only this, the scheme which the MVA had approved has been suspended, which will make it tough for the MLAs to answer their voters.