Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule on Thursday ruled out any possible merger with the Congress for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, NDTV reported. The MP said her father Sharad Pawar had already made it clear that alliance with Congress was not on the cards.

Sule’s comments came two days after Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde had said at a campaign rally that both the Congress and the NCP belonged to the same ideological tree. He had expressed hope that the two Congresses would come together in the future.

On whether a merger with Congress would help both the parties, Sule said: “If I don’t need to go on that road, why should I worry? If I am not going on that destination, why should I worry about the connectivity.”

She dismissed that the internal divide within Congress party has any impact on the NCP. “Dissent is a part of democracy, one or two people in such a grand old party saying anything ...I don’t think it is of much relevance,” the daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar said. “The Congress’s house is in order. They maybe having some challenges, which I am not aware of... We are very confident, very happy working with the Congress.”

Sule said senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s comments about the Congress was their “internal problem”. Earlier this week, Khurshid had said the departure of Rahul Gandhi has left a vacuum in the party, and that they may not be able to win the elections or ensure its own future. “If someone in a large party feels a certain emotion, it is none of my business,” Sule told NDTV. “It is nothing to do with my state or the issues it faces, like the agrarian crisis...”

The NCP leader also described Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as a “translator” who did nothing except tell people about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decisions in Marathi. “He has no work,” she said. “He translates from Marathi to Hindi, whatever PM Modi does at the Centre.”

She said her party was ready to fight the battle in the elections on October 21.

“NCP is a political party,” Sule said. “It is 365 days and 24/7 always ready for election. Like most political parties we are also ready for battle.”

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