India, Dec. 30 -- Blood is thicker than ideology is a truism when it comes to Indian politics. So, it is no surprise that Sharad and Ajit Pawars have come together to fight municipal elections in Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad corporations. On Sunday, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) factions announced a seat deal for the January 15 municipal elections. What makes the arrangement interesting is Ajit Pawar continues to be a deputy chief minister in the BJP-led state government even as his party joins hands with NCP (Sharad Pawar) to take on the BJP - and the Congress, the largest group in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) mentored by Sharad Pawar - in Pune district. The reasons behind this political realignment are simple. One, since the bitter split in 2023, the NCP has been losing ground in its strongholds in Western Maharashtra. The NCP (Ajit Pawar) was decimated in the Lok Sabha elections, which saw the NCP (SP) do well. But the scenario changed in the assembly polls when the senior Pawar's political outfit was swept away in the NDA tsunami. The Pawars realise that, irrespective of the poll outcome, the levers of power in Maharashtra, including in their own backyard in the Pune region, are now with the BJP. It's been some time since the BJP expanded its footprint into urban pockets in Western Maharashtra - the party had won both Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad corporations in 2017 and the Pune Lok Sabha seat in 2014. Any further erosion of influence at the grassroots would severely curtail the organisational strength as well as the negotiating power of the NCPs in Maharashtra politics. If the pre-poll alliance is a first step towards a merger of two factions or triggers a realignment in state politics will depend on many other factors, including the local bodies poll outcome....