Pune: Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, at a meeting of the Pune city unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Kasba Assembly constituency, has announced that the party will contest the upcoming local self-government elections independently.

This declaration was made during a gathering aimed at discussing election strategies and reaching out to the public with government schemes.

For the past two years, local self-government elections have not been held in the state, leading political party workers to wonder when these elections will take place.

The Lok Sabha election was contested by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) together. However, the Mahayuti was unable to secure the expected number of seats in this election.

With speculation in political circles that the three parties in the Mahayuti might contest the upcoming Assembly elections independently, Ajit Pawar has now clarified his stance regarding both the Assembly and local self-government elections.

In the meeting, Ajit Pawar emphasized the importance of communicating the schemes of the central and state governments to the public. He announced that while the upcoming Assembly elections will be contested as part of the Mahayuti, the subsequent local self-government elections will be contested independently by the NCP.

Ajit Pawar along with party MPs Praful Patel, State President Sunil Tatkare, Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar, and all NCP ministers from the state cabinet had recently conducted a public rally in Baramati, named the Jan Sanman Rally by the NCP.

Ajit Pawar strategized to rejuvenate his party after the defeat of his wife Sunetra Pawar from Supriya Sule in Baramati constituency in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.