Ajit Pawar’s NCP Prepares for Nationwide Expansion After Assembly Election Victory; Asserts Intention of Contesting Delhi Assembly Election

Pune:

After the tremendous success in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction) is now pitching for repeating the same performance in other states. In today’s press conference, Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel said that after getting the approval of regional parties by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in three states, they, as the NCP party, now wanted to increase their presence in other states too.

Praful Patel said, “We have received recognition by the ECI in three states. Now we do not want to stop here. But we want to go ahead, and the first step to make the NCP a capable and successful national party will be the Delhi elections.”

He also said that under the leadership of Virendra Singh, they will contest the upcoming Delhi elections. Patel said, “Looking at the confidence of party activists, I am sure that we will expand our party under the leadership of Virendra Singh and we will win some seats in Delhi.” Patel also affirmed that they will soon get back the status of a national party that they had lost recently.

The NCP has been recognised in three states, namely Maharashtra, Nagaland, and Jharkhand. A few years ago, the Election Commission withdrawn the recognition of NCP as a national party. Ajit Pawar’s NCP is trying to get the status of the national party back. However, since it is part of the NDA coalition, it is not yet clear whether Ajit Pawar’s NCP will contest seats in Delhi with the BJP or independently.

In the recently concluded elections, the NCP received 58.1 lakh votes in the state and won 42 assembly seats. However, their rival faction, the NCP (SP), received 72.7 lakh votes but only managed to win 10 seats. There was a direct contest between these two groups on 39 seats. Out of these, Ajit Pawar’s party has won 33 seats. In the Lok Sabha election, Ajit Pawar’s NCP got 20.5 lakh votes while Sharad Pawar’s group got 58.5 lakh votes.