India, Jan. 13 -- Nationalist Congress Party chief and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday elaborated on the reason for the reunion of his family, as well as the reunion of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, ahead of the local body elections in the state.

In an interview with news agency ANI, Pawar spoke on the reason for aligning with his uncle Sharad Pawar's NCP faction in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, saying a "joint election strategy" had been decided upon for civic polls in these cities.

"The workers knew that if they contested against each other, the votes would be split. That was something they wanted to avoid at all costs," the Maharashtra deputy CM said, adding that the party workers wanted to win the civic body polls....