Nationalist Congress Party
The Nationalist Congress Party is one of the eight national parties in India.
Party formation and performance
The NCP was formed on 25 May 1999, by Sharad Pawar, P. A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar after they were expelled from the Indian National Congress on 20 May 1999, for disputing the right of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi to lead the party. At the time of formation of the NCP, the Indian Congress party merged with the new party.Despite the NCP being founded on opposition to the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the party joined the Congress led UPA to form government of Maharashtra in October 1999. In 2004, the party joined the UPA to form the Indian Government led by Manmohan Singh. NCP leader, Sharad pawar served as the minister of agriculture for both five year terms of Singh led government.The party remained part of the Congress led Maharashtra state government until 2014. On 20 June 2012, P. A. Sangma quit the NCP to contest in presidential polls. In May 2014 Lok Sabha, the UPA lost to the rival NDA alliance led by Narendra Modi and the NCP was out of government for the first time in ten years. NCP broke its alliance with the Congress party just before Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections in 2014 to contest on its own. In the assembly election the BJP emerged as the largest party and formed a minority government initially with support from NCP.
In April 2019, voting took place for the 48 Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra.
The Congress and NCP had a seat-sharing arrangement. Similarly, despite their differences, the BJP and Shiv Sena once again contested the elections together under the National Democratic Alliance banner. The election was another landslide victory for the NDA, with the BJP and Shiv Sena winning 23 and 18 seats, respectively, out of the total of the state's 48 Lok Sabha seats. The Congress party won only one seat in the state whereas the NCP won five seats from its stronghold of western Maharashtra.
In November 2019 after a month of political drama, the NCP came back into power at the state level as part of a coalition formed between Shiv Sena, the Congress and NCP. This followed the Vidhan sabha elections in October 2019 where the BJP–Shiv-Sena and NCP–Congress alliances remained intact for seat sharing. The BJP and Shiv Sena together gained the majority of seats in the assembly but could not form government due to squabbles between the two parties. The BJP, with 105 seats, was far short of the 145 seats required to form majority and declined to form a minority government. At the same time, Shiv Sena started talks with the NCP and Congress to form government. However, in a dramatic and controversial move, on 23 November 2019, the BJP formed a government with support from NCP, with Ajit Pawar as Deputy Chief Minister. This government collapsed three days later with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar resigning their respective positions. On 28 November 2019, the governor of Maharashtra swore in Uddhav Thackeray, the Shiv Sena chief, as the new chief minister of Maharashtra. Thackeray's governing coalition includes Shiv Sena, NCP, INC, and a number of independent members of legislative assembly.The cabinet includes ministers from NCP in key portfolios.
Party symbol
The election symbol of NCP is an analogue clock.The clock is drawn in blue and has two legs and an alarm button. It is situated on a tri-coloured Indian flag.
Party leadership
The party's primary base is the state of Maharashtra and leadership reflects that.Also since the 1980s, Indian politics has become dynastic, possibly due to the absence of a party organization, independent civil society associations that mobilize support for the party, and centralized financing of elections. This phenomenon is seen from national level down to district level.In that regard NCP is considered the party with the highest level of dynasticism in Indian politics. The party founder, Sharad Pawar has many members of his family such as daughter Supriya Sule and nephew Ajit Pawar holding prominent positions in the party.Electoral performance
Lok Sabha elections
| Lok Sabha term | Indian general election | Seats contested | Seats won | Votes polled | % of votes | % of votes in seats contested | State | Reference |
| 13th Lok Sabha | 1999 | 132 | 8 | 82,60,311 | 2.27 | 9.52 |
| |
| 14th Lok Sabha | 2004 | 32 | 9 | 70,23,175 | 1.80 | |||
| 15th Lok Sabha | 2009 | 68 | 9 | 85,21,502 | 1.19 | 2.04 | ||
| 16th Lok Sabha | 2014 | 36 | 6 | 86,35,558 | 1.56 | |||
| 17th Lok Sabha | 2019 | 35 | 5 | 84,83,632 |