Sharad Pawar to contest from Madha

Sharad Pawar wth Chhagan Bhujbal, Jayant Patil and Ajit Pawar at an NCP meeting at the YB Chavan Centre.

The candidature of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar has been finalised from Madha for the Lok Sabha elections. The party boss will himself announce his re-entry into the electoral fray, when the list of candidates is declared, NCP leaders said on Thursday.

The NCP boss and senior leaders met at the YB Chavan Centre to discuss the course of action. The leaders forced him to accept their demand, said former union minister Praful Patel after the conclave. Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar said his uncle would make an official announcement.

Big win margin a concern
Pawar senior's candidature has been decided to quell infighting in Madha constituency, where two groups of the NCP - one led by incumbent MP Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil and the other led by Babanrao Shinde and his brother Sanjaymama - are at loggerheads. The Shinde group is hell bent on defeating Mohite-Patil if given candidature.

With the infighting resolved and assurance taken from the warring groups in a meeting at Ramraje Nimbalkar's Mumbai residence on Wednesday, the party workers are now waiting for an official announcement. Party sources said the Pawars want the boss to win by a huge margin because he is known to reduce his rivals to dust.

The NCP chief had 'retired' from Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and put Mohite-Patil in the contest that he had won in 2009. Maintaining the track record of big wins will be crucial for the NCP leader, who has emerged as a binding force for national and regional parties that are scrambling for a bigger share to beat the Narendra Modi government. Pawar's New Delhi home where top leaders confer has become the centre of action.

Pawar has also mended his association with the Congress leadership. His initiative has helped the parties revive the 20-year-old alliance. Sources said a formula for sharing seats in Maharashtra has been decided. They have decided to leave four seats each from their quotas of 22 (NCP) and the 26 (Congress) seats. The two will also be together in the Assembly polls slated to be held in October this year. However, Prakash Ambedkar's demand for 12 seats has been delaying the expansion of the alliance. The Congress-NCP is ready to give Ambedkar's Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, at the most, four seats. Hitendra Thakur's Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, Raju Shetti's Swabhimani Paksha and CPM have been assured one seat each.

Another issue that the alliance partners need to resolve is the sharing of Ahmednagar and Aurangabad seats. Opposition leader in the Assembly (Congress) Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil's son Dr Sujay wants Ahmednagar, but the NCP hasn't yielded yet.

Raj Thackeray with NCP-Cong?
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray has inched closer to the Congress-NCP alliance with the Pawars batting for his inclusion. Thackeray met Ajit Pawar at a common friend's residence in Mumbai on Wednesday evening. Pawar senior has been advising the MNS boss and is seen as instrumental in trying to get him in, despite the Congress' Maharashtra leadership's reluctance. But the Congress' top leadership in Delhi does not seem averse to the idea of partnering with MNS.

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