Four months after the death of former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will mark the party’s foundation day on June 10 with separate events in Mumbai.

NCP state president and MP Sunil Tatkare on Friday announced that the party’s 27th Foundation Day celebrations will be held at 2 pm at Shanmukhananda Hall in Mumbai.

The Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SP, meanwhile, will hold its foundation day programme at 10 am at the Y B Chavan Centre in Mumbai under the theme “Loyalty to ideology, dedication to people”. Party national working president and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule said the NCP-SP would celebrate its foundation day on June 10 and participate in a meeting of INDIA bloc constituents on June 8. The undivided NCP was founded by Sharad Pawar on June 10, 1999, at a public rally at Shivaji Park in Mumbai. Following the split in the party in 2023, both factions have continued to observe June 10 as their foundation day.

This year’s event comes against the backdrop of Ajit Pawar’s death in an aircraft crash on January 28. In the weeks leading up to his death, leaders from both factions were engaged in talks over a possible merger. The proposal has since been shelved, with both sides deciding not to pursue reunification.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, Tatkare said Ajit Pawar had worked tirelessly to expand the party and strengthen its grassroots presence across Maharashtra. He noted that under Ajit’s leadership, the NCP had emerged as the single-largest party in the 2004 Assembly elections, winning 73 seats.

Tatkare recalled that in 2023, guided by the vision of late deputy prime minister Yashwantrao Chavan that meaningful welfare of the broader masses could be achieved only through participation in governance, the party collectively decided under Ajit’s leadership to join the BJP-led alliance NDA. Referring to the party’s recent electoral performance, Tatkare said that although it fell short of expectations in the Lok Sabha elections, it performed strongly in the Assembly polls, contesting 59 seats and winning 41 under Ajit Pawar’s leadership.

“Just as the government had begun gathering momentum, our own momentum was halted by Ajitdada’s untimely passing,” Tatkare said. “It has now been four months since we lost him, and the pain remains profound.”

He said this year’s Foundation Day celebrations of the faction led by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Sunetra Ajit Pawar would therefore be centred around the themes of “Dedication” (a tribute to Ajit Pawar), “Struggle” (the party’s political and ideological journey), and “Resolve” (its vision and goals for the future). ​​​​​​

He appealed to party workers and leaders to attend the Foundation Day programme in large numbers and use the occasion to strengthen the organisation, expand the party’s reach and begin the next phase of work with renewed energy and commitment.