Sharad Pawar rejects Shinde's claim of NCP-Congress merger ahead of Maharashtra polls

Dismissing Congress leader and former Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's remarks about Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)'s merger in the future, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday that he knew better than Shinde about his party's future prospects.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar said in a press conference, "Congress and NCP are working together in an alliance in the state. Sushil Kumar Shinde can present Congress's views but not of the NCP. I am the national president of NCP and nobody knows the status of my party better than me," Pawar told reporters at a press conference.

On Tuesday, Sushil Kumar Shinde hinted that the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will come "closer" in the near future and the INC would be unified.

At a campaign rally for an NCP candidate in Maharashtra, Shinde said, "Ultimately, Congress and NCP, even if these two parties are separate, I tell you from this stage that these parties will come closer in near future and Congress will be unified."

"At one point in time, we have grown under the same tree. We have played in the lap of the same mother as we are people who have come forward following the leadership of Indira Gandhi and Yashwantrao Chavan," Shinde had said.

Assembly polls in Maharashtra will be held on October 21 and the results will be announced on October 24.

(Inputs from DNAindia.com)