Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said on Sunday that his faction of the Nationalist Congress Party would contest civic body elections in the state alone, PTI reported.

The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party faction is part of the state’s ruling Mahayuti alliance, along with the Shiv Sena group led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“Even though we are allies in the Lok Sabha and state Assembly, Mahayuti members are free to contest local bodies polls independently,” he said.

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The schedule for the next round of local body elections in Maharashtra, including those for municipal corporations and zilla parishads, has not yet been announced.

Addressing a rally in Pimpri-Chinchwad near Pune on Saturday, Ajit Pawar said that his party would field “new and old faces” from all sections of society in the local polls.

In July 2023, Ajit Pawar and several party legislators joined the state’s Mahayuti coalition government. This resulted in a split within the Nationalist Congress Party, with one faction supporting Sharad Pawar and the other backing Ajit Pawar.

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Ajit Pawar subsequently became the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.

On July 17, Ajit Pawar’s party faced a setback after four leaders from Pimpri-Chinchwad quit his faction and returned to the group led by Sharad Pawar. The area is considered a stronghold of the Nationalist Congress Party.

This came more than a month after Ajit Pawar’s faction of the party, which is part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre, took a drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections. It won only one of the five parliamentary seats it contested in Maharashtra.

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The Sharad Pawar-led faction of the party, which is a member of the Opposition INDIA bloc, won eight of the 10 Lok Sabha seats it contested.

Last month, Sharad Pawar stated that while he would welcome back any leaders who could strengthen his party, there would be no place for those who wished to weaken it.