Sharad Pawar turns down Sushil Kumar Shinde’s proposal to merge with Congress

MUMBAI: A day after Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde called for the merger of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress saying “both were tired” and that they could take on the BJP unitedly, the NCP hit back saying it will not merge with the Congress.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar rebuked senior Congress leader Shinde for his comments on the merger saying: “The Congress and NCP are working together as alliance partners in the state. Sushil Kumar Shinde can talk for the Congress but not for the NCP. I am the national president of the NCP and I know the status of my party better than him.”

Shinde’s comments have not gone down well within the NCP and even a section of the Congress as his statement exposed helplessness when he spoke of the Congress and NCP being “tired”. Congress and NCP leaders said that the statement has come at an inappropriate time with elections round the corner.


However, Shinde reiterated what he said on Tuesday and clarified that it was his ‘personal opinion’.

“It’s been many years, we got separated in 1999. It’s been more than 20 years. This is my personal opinion. Even grassroots workers from both parties want this merger,” Shinde told media persons.

Shinde had, on Tuesday, said the NCP and Congress would be unified in future. “Congress and NCP are separate parties. However, the two parties will be come together and the Congress will again be unified,” Shinde had said.

The Congress leader claimed that the Congress and NCP were from the “same tree” and had leaders who worked under the “leadership of Indira Gandhi and Yashwantrao Chavan”.

The BJP has capitalised on this remark with Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis saying that the Congress and NCP will have no one left with them after the assembly elections.