Chetan Tupe, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA from Pune's Hadapsar, was recently seen at an event alongside NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, leading to speculation that he might join the former Union minister's faction ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls, likely to be held in October this year.
However, Tupe dismissed the speculations and said that he did not talk to Pawar at the event. “It was not a political programme and I attended it as I was invited by the organisers. Though I met Sharad Pawar, we did not talk to each other," said the Hadapsar MLA.
Following the split in the NCP in 2022, Tupe was one of the few MLAs who did not initially align with either Ajit Pawar or Sharad Pawar's faction. Eventually, he joined Ajit Pawar's NCP and is expected to contest the election from Hadapsar once again. NCP (SP) is likely to give the ticket to its city chief Prashant Jagtap, while Vasant More, who recently joined Shiv Sena (UBT), is also vying for the seat.
Meanwhile, several leaders from the Ajit Pawar faction are joining NCP (SP). Recently, NCP MLC Babajani Durrani, a senior leader from Parbhani, joined the Sharad Pawar faction. Durrani cited ideological differences with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena as reasons for leaving the NCP. “Ideologically, NCP doesn’t align with BJP and Shiv Sena, making adjustment difficult,” Durrani said.
In Pimpri-Chinchwad, several NCP leaders, including its city chief Ajit Gavhane, switched over to NCP (SP). Gavhane is likely to get a ticket from the Bhosari Assembly constituency and contest against BJP's Mahesh Landge.
