No discussions regarding merger—neither formal nor informal: NCP

NCP president Sunetra Pawar (left); Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar president (right). (File Photo)

Scotching speculations, the NCP has denied that any discussions with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP are underway.

“For the past week, news regarding the merger of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has been circulated citing so-called sources. However, no discussions regarding a merger are underway—neither formal nor informal..! Neither from our side… nor from their side..! We have clarified this repeatedly,” NCP national chief spokesperson Umesh Patil said in a statement.

Patil said people should at least now stop trusting so-called ‘sources’ who use the media to create false narratives and set their own political agendas.

“Sunetra Pawar is the national president of the NCP, Deputy Chief Minister of the state, and Guardian Minister of Pune district. When she is in Pune, it is entirely natural for party MLAs, office-bearers, corporators, and workers to go meet her,” he said.

Asking why MLAs wouldn’t meet their leadership for constituency development works, district planning committee matters, or pending works in the Secretariat, Patil said, “What is the exact agenda behind giving a political spin to such routine meetings and broadcasting news that ‘Parth Pawar called a meeting of MLAs?”

The NCP spokesperson said MP Supriya Sule and MLA Rohit Pawar have also clarified that there is no merger proposal and no discussions are taking place in that regard. “Then, exactly who fed these stories to the media over the past week? Ignoring the facts we have been stating from the beginning and trusting information from so-called sources—isn’t this an injustice to our party,” he asked.

Patil said the media now needs to investigate whether certain factions are using it to serve their own hidden political agendas and personal political interests. “Therefore, our only expectation moving forward is that the media remains cautious of such unreliable sources,” he said.