Mumbai: Against the backdrop of speculation about a possible merger between the Opposition Congress and NCP (SP), Union Minister Ramdas Athawale has said the Sharad Pawar-led party should rather join the BJP-led NDA.
Athawale, who heads the Republican Party of India (Athawale faction), on Saturday, June 13, said he himself had advised Pawar to merge his party with the Congress in the past. But the Grand Old Party has no strength left now, he maintained.
“Instead of going to the Congress, he should come to the NDA. If he has a problem with the BJP, then he should merge with the RPI,” Athawale quipped.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut recently suggested that parties like the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Nationalist Congress Party (SP), formed after their leaders quit the Congress, should return to the fold of the Grand Old Party so as to create a strong alternative to the BJP.
Raut had also said that NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar should take a lead in merging the smaller parties back with the Congress.
His comments came after the drubbing faced by the TMC in the West Bengal assembly elections held recently.
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