Letter from Sunetra Pawar to ECI after election as NCP chief does not mention Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare’s posts

PUNE: A recent letter signed by NCP chief Sunetra Pawar and sent to the Election Commission of India (ECI) has surfaced on social media without the designations of party seniors Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare. Sunetra reached Delhi on Wednesday evening where she is expected to meet key NDA members.

After the split in the NCP in 2023, Ajit Pawar was elected the NCP chief, Patel has been its national working president and Tatkare, its state president. Close to a month after Ajit Pawar's death in a plane crash on Jan 28, his wife Sunetra was elected unanimously as the party chief on Feb 26.

Sunetra wrote to the ECI about her appointment on March 10. She also sent a letter with a list of 14 office-bearers with her as the party president and Shivajirao Garje as the treasurer. The communication does not mention any designation for the remaining 12 members, including Patel, Tatkare, Chhagan Bhujbal and Jay Pawar. Patel, Tatkare, Parth and Jay Pawar did not respond to several calls and messages from TOI.

Meanwhile, after months of denying reunification talks between the two NCP groups, Tatkare on Tuesday changed his stance and said that merger discussions were going on when former deputy minister Ajit Pawar and then party chief was alive.

Tatkare's comments came during his interview with an electronic media outlet, where he said, "I was aware of the merger talks. It is not that I was against it, but there is a difference between the two reunification scenarios, when Ajitdada was alive and when he is not amongst us."

He criticised NCP (SP) members for showing urgency in speaking about the merger immediately after Ajit Pawar's death in a plane crash and not backing Sunetra Pawar as the next NCP chief.

Senior members of NCP (SP), including party chief Sharad Pawar, former state chief Jayant Patil and current state chief Shashikant Shinde, had said that the unification of the NCPs was Ajit Pawar's wish and talks were in the final stage before his untimely death.

Tatkare said, "Those people are now saying that the merger was Ajitdada's last wish but they are the same people who targeted him when he decided (to join Mahayuti). After the Lok Sabha performance, some said that Ajitdada's political career was over. I will speak about this in detail later."

NCP (SP) members said that Tatkare was finally speaking the truth. Shinde said, "We have been constantly saying that merger talks were on but when they (NCP) kept denying it, we stopped speaking. Now that Tatkare has said so, he should also reveal the discussions held by their party."