Sharad Pawar-led NCP will not merge with any political party: Sule

Pune, Feb 15: The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party will not merge with any political party, its Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule asserted today.

She was speaking to reporters after a meeting of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) at party chief Sharad Pawar's residence here.

Apart from Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule, former Maharashtra ministers Anil Deshmukh and Rajesh Tope, MPs Amol Kolhe and Shrinivas Patil along with others leaders attended the meeting.

"Our faction will not merge with any political party. We will contest the upcoming polls as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)," Ms Sule said when asked about reports of her party's merger.

"Today's meeting was aimed at planning for an upcoming rally (of the INDIA bloc). The discussion revolved around the names of leaders who will address the rally," she said.

The party's Pune city unit president Prashant Jagtap said, "The news about the merger of our party is wrong. We will come forward with a new name and a new symbol."

"Today's meeting was held in view of the upcoming Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha elections. Talks were also held on the February 24 rally of the INDIA alliance in Pune," he added.

Anil Deshmukh also denied reports that the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) will merge into any other political party.

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The NCP was split in July last year after senior leader Ajit Pawar along with eight other MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government. The Election Commission of India (ECI) last week allotted the party name 'NCP' and poll symbol 'clock' to the Ajit Pawar-led group.