By IANS,
New Delhi: The efforts of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar to promote his daughter Supriya Sule for the top job in the party has obviously not gone down well with many of its senior leaders, including Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.
The buzz in the party, which is a coalition partner in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, is that Patel is actively contemplating switching over to the Congress and has had secret parleys with leaders who have been advocating the merger of the two parties.
Pawar formed the NCP in 1999 after splitting from the Congress on the issue of foreign origin of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is Italy-born. With seat sharing talks still to be firmed up for the Maharashtra assembly elections, this could be a development to watch out for.