Calls for a Pawar family reunion have been sounded in Maharashtra with talk of a possible merger of the Nationalist Congress Party’s two factions, one led by the veteran Sharad Pawar and the other by his nephew and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.

Most of the merger signals have so far come from Ajit camp followers — who insist that a reunited NCP must be part of the BJP-led alliance — with Pawar Sr and his daughter and MP Supriya Sule maintaining silence.

Ajit’s mother Ashatai Pawar set the ball rolling on New Year’s Day with what appeared a rehearsed comment, scripted by the political players in her family.

“I prayed for the reunion of Ajit and his uncle,” Ashatai, who rarely speaks to the media, told reporters after visiting a temple in Pune on Wednesday. “All disputes should end. Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar should unite.”

As if on cue, Praful Patel, a key leader of the Ajit faction, immediately hailed Sharad as “God” and backed the unity call.

“Sharad Pawar is a father figure to us. He is our deity…. If the family comes together again, it will make us extremely happy,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Patel, a minister in the erstwhile UPA government, is believed to have played a key role in negotiating with the BJP and getting Ajit to split the old NCP, led by his uncle, in July 2023. Ajit then joined the BJP-Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) government.

Party insiders said Patel was now trying to unite the two NCP factions.

While Sharad and Sule — working president of their NCP faction — have neither confirmed nor denied the reunion talks, many in the two camps appear ready to interpret their silence as tacit approval.

However, one of Ajit’s lieutenants had a word of caution on Thursday.

“Pawar Saheb, who is in the last lap of his career, may not be averse to a merger but I’m not sure whether his daughter is ready for it,” he said.

He argued that apart from her ideological opposition to the BJP, Sule would want to lead her party like her father and not hand over control to cousin Ajit.

In the Assembly elections, whose results were declared last month, Ajit’s party bagged a creditable 41 seats while the Sharad Pawar faction won just 10. This initially led to fears in Pawar Sr’s party that some of its MLAs and workers might be tempted to seek greener pastures in the nephew’s camp.

But gradually, the talk has shifted from defection to reunion.

Members of Ajit’s faction have, however, made it plain there’s no question of snapping ties with the BJP and that Pawar Sr and Sule must agree to be saffron allies if they want a merger.

“Led by Ajit Dada, we took a position to go with the BJP. The people of Maharashtra have spoken through their votes and now Pawar Saheb will have to join us,” an Ajit faction leader said. “It will not be the other way round.”

Speculation about the “political family reunion” had begun on December 12 when Ajit, his wife Sunetra (who contested against Sule from family borough Baramati in the Lok Sabha polls and lost) and Patel called on Sharad at his Delhi residence to wish him on his 84th birthday. The meeting caused surprise since uncle and nephew had not been on talking terms.

Less than a week later, Sharad met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to gift him a box of pomegranates brought to him by two Maharashtra farmers. His party insiders said the pomegranates were just an excuse to meet Modi against the backdrop of the talks with Ajit.