Congress leader Nana Patole on Friday said there was a growing mindset that favours the merger of secular parties, including the TMC and the NCP (SP), into the grand old party, and a process to that effect has begun at the national level.
He also claimed that the Sharad Pawar-led party had earlier submitted a proposal for a merger with the Congress, but it could not materialise for some reason.
His statement comes a day after Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar should take a lead in merging the smaller parties, which came into existence after splitting away from the Congress, back with the grand old party.
When asked about the talks of possible merger of NCP (SP) with the Congress doing rounds, Patole claimed that a proposal for the merger from the Sharad Pawar-led party had already been made earlier, but it got delayed for some reason.
"I feel that what is happening in the country's politics now and the country's constitutional order is being eroded. At a time when votes are getting widely divided... to stop that and to save the country and its Constitution, all the parties with secular views should come together. A process of that kind has now begun at the national level," he said.
"Accordingly, on those lines, whether it is the Trinamool Congress or Pawar saheb (NCP-SP), the mindset and approach is now visible that they should come together with the Congress and merge into it," he said.
