Senior NCP (SP) leaders Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad met Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde at his official residence in Mumbai on Thursday night, bolstering speculation that the opposition party was close to aligning with the NDA.
The closed door meeting between the three leaders lasted for about an hour, said people aware of the matter. Shinde, a Sena insider said, postponed his departure to New Delhi for a meeting of NDA members to be chaired by defence minister Rajnath Singh, in order to meet the two leaders in Mumbai.
The meeting came close a day after NCP (SP) national working president Supriya Sule said her party would consider supporting a constitution amendment bill to implement women’s reservation and delimitation if the central government accepted their demands. She, however, clarified that the party’s official position was not decided yet.
On Tuesday night, Jayant Patil was at chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s residence, where rival NCP faction’s senior leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare too were present. A fortnight ago, Jayant Patil also met BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde, following which two top NCP (SP) leaders told HT that their party was exploring options. “We can’t say the things will work out in a particular way but we are exploring the option of joining the NDA directly or indirectly,” said one of the two leaders, requesting anonymity.
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The two leaders said three options could be explored – to merge the two NCPs; to join the NDA separately if deputy CM and NCP chief Sunetra Pawar does not agree to the merger; and to support the NDA on specific issues, without joining the coalition.
