NCP Denies Receiving Proposal to Join Alliance

Supriya Sule said, "Pawar Saheb, myself, Jayant Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope or any of our senior leaders have not received any proposal from any party. Neither the BJP, nor the Congress, nor any of the NDA allies have given us any proposal." When asked if party MPs and MLAs are under pressure to join the ruling alliance, Sule also denied this. She said, "All our eight MPs are in constant touch with each other and discuss regularly with Sharad Pawar Saheb. Not a single MP or MLA has ever expressed a desire to part ways. We are happy where we are." Discussions of the Sharad Pawar faction joining the NDA gained momentum when NCP (SCP) leader Jayant Patil, ruling NCP leaders Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met in Mumbai late at night. However, Sharad Pawar's faction said that these were administrative meetings, or that there were reports of a possible alliance between the two parties.