Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar on Saturday clarified that there were no plans to merge his party with the Congress and they would continue to work independently, as the issue dominated the party’s general body and core committee meetings held in the city to review its Lok Sabha performance and discuss strategy for the Assembly elections.

In the general body meeting, a few Lok Sabha candidates and district presidents spoke about the recent elections and work needed for the ensuing Assembly polls. However, most leaders expressed their discontent over merger speculation.

In his speech, Pawar, who chaired both the meetings at YB Chavan Centre in Mumbai, clarified that the reports published in the media had no substance. “The reports of merger of our party with the Congress are shocking for us, as there was no discussion on these lines either in Delhi or Mumbai. It is a systematic attempt to create confusion among the cadre. I want to clarify that no such talks were held and there are no such plans. We are a prime party in the state with an independent identity and will remain so,” he said.

His nephew and senior party leader Ajit Pawar, too, asked leaders to avoid paying heed to such reports. Ajit assured them the party would not take any important decision without taking the state and district level leaders into confidence.

The leaders also decided to finalise the alliance and hold seat-sharing talks with alliance partners at the earliest, so they get more time for campaigning. “We have hardly 100 days left for the Assembly elections. We have decided to finalise the seat-sharing agreement with the Congress and other smaller allies at the earliest. The party will assign responsibility of regions and departments to senior leaders to ensure effective campaigning. Pawar saheb has directed the leaders reach out to grassroots level and expose the sham policies of the ruling BJP governments,” said a leader.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election campaign, Pawar said, “His entire campaign was based on non-development issues [such as Pulwama, air strike and Kedarnath visit], while we kept talking about issues directly related to common man. The Assembly results will be different from the Lok Sabha results,” he said.

First Published: Jun 01, 2019 23:57 IST