NCP leaders tight-lipped on possibility of merger; Piyush Goyal thinks it is unlikely

Senior leaders of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Saturday maintained a guarded silence on the prospects of merger of the rival factions of the party even as Union Minister Piyush Goyal said he did not expect it to happen anytime soon.

Senior leaders of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Saturday maintained a guarded silence on the prospects of merger of the rival factions of the party even as Union Minister Piyush Goyal said he did not expect it to happen anytime soon. The NCP (SP) leaders, on the other hand, claimed that Ajit Pawar, who died in an air crash on January 28, very much wanted the two factions to reunite, but party supremo Sharad Pawar conceded that the process might face a roadblock now. Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar was on Saturday evening sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, filling the vacancy created by her husband's demise. Union minister Goyal said the NCP headed by Ajit Pawar, as part of the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra, has performed very well. ''I personally do not see that will happen,'' the BJP leader told PTI in an interview when asked his views on the talks of the merger of the two NCP factions. Goyal said that the NCP leadership ''was with Ajit Pawar and now with Sunetra Pawar Ji''. He added that Praful Patel has been appointed as the national president of the Nationalist Congress Party. ''I don't see Mr Sharad Pawar being invited to join the NCP, given that he has lost the people's trust and the vote,'' he said. In Mumbai, NCP leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare refused to comment on the issue. Emerging from a high-level meeting ahead of Sunetra Pawar's swearing-in, Tatkare said, ''We have nothing to say on this matter right now.'' Chhagan Bhujbal, another senior NCP leader, indicated that their priority was to maintain stability within the ruling BJP-NCP-Shiv Sena coalition. Speaking in Baramati earlier in the morning, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar said Ajit Pawar and NCP(SP) leader Jayant Patil were discussing the merger roadmap for the last four months. ''All discussions were held at their level, but it now appears the process may hit a roadblock following the (plane) accident. The talks were progressing in a positive direction, but the accident adversely affected the process,'' the Pawar senior said. ''It was Ajit's wish to unite the two factions, and now it is our wish that his wish should be fulfilled,'' he added. Speaking in Ishwarpur, Jayant Patil claimed that the roadmap for the merger had been finalized in mid-January, with a formal announcement slated for February 12. He held multiple meetings with Ajit Pawar who was ''very insistent'' on bringing the two sides back together under the guidance of Sharad Pawar, Patil said. According to Patil, the two factions reached a consensus on January 16 about contesting the coming Zilla Parishad elections together as a ''confidence-building measure,'' followed by a formal merger announcement in February.

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