Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar has called a meeting of district wise party leaders in Mumbai to decide the strategy for the state Assembly polls likely in September-October. According to the senior NCP leader, they never expected the kind of result they got in Lok Sabha polls. "We had fielded very good candidates but lost the polls badly. We have to rethink on our strategy. Therefore, we have to field the new and young faces this time. Besides, we have to do the social engineering," said senior NCP leader requesting anonymity. He further said that Sharad Pawar is taking charge of every decision and development in the party. "It also shows that the Ajit Pawar's wings have been clipped after his son Parth Pawar's defeat from Mawal Lok Sabha seat. Pawar is taking stock of every detail. Ajit has been sidelined in the entire process," he added. Interestingly, on one hand, Ajit Pawar's power in the party has plummeted while NCP MP and daughter of Supriya Sule is rising. Another NCP leader said that in this scenario, it is very difficult to dethrone the BJP government. "As per the Lok Sabha polls results, the BJP and Shiv Sena are likely to win 228 out of 288 seats in Maharashtra Assembly polls. While the NCP and the Congress are likely to get over 50 seats only. In this scenario, it is very difficult to defeat the BJP and the Sena. Therefore, if we have to come back to competition, we have to bring Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on board. It has got eight per cent vote share in Lok Sabha. If we calculate the NCP, Congress and VBA together then it comes to 42% vote share, while the Shiv Sena and BJP has got 48%. An alliance with Dr Prakash Ambedkar-led VBA is very crucial for NCP," he added.

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