Other family members, including Baramati MP Supriya Sule and MLA Rohit Pawar, attended the meeting. When asked about it, Supriya said, “How can the details of a closed-door meeting be revealed outside?”
After the meeting, the Pawar family members were seen together at an agriculture exhibition in Baramati. “I was told that Pawar Saheb was also going to visit the exhibition and therefore I reached his residence and we went to the venue together,” NCP chief Ajit Pawar said without disclosing details of the meeting. The sources said NCP (SP) state president Shashikant Shinde, former state unit chief Jayant Patil and party’s Shirur MP Amol Kolhe too were present in the meeting held to decide the strategy for the Feb 5 polls.Shinde said, “Senior members of both the parties discussed forming an alliance for the elections to the 12 zilla parishads and 125 panchayat samitis. We also discussed the possibility of friendly fights in some civic bodies.” Both factions of NCP gave an indication of a possible reunion when they joined hands for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) polls. However, the alliance fared poorly, as NCP won 27 seats in PMC and 37 in PCMC. Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) performed at its lowest, as it bagged only three seats in PMC and could not open its account in PCMC.
