The merger talks between the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the NCP (SP) may have cooled off in the past few weeks, but the buzz around the two parties coming together has not died down. When Sharad Pawar was asked about the NCP merger at an event in Mumbai, the NCP-SP chief said that his party wouldn’t go anywhere. Sharad Pawar also said that other parties can merge with his party if they want.

Addressing the district presidents of the NCP-SP and affiliated organisations in Mumbai’s YB Chavan center, Sharad Pawar said, “While discussing politics, our state president used a phrase and mentioned in a passing remark that various discussions and rumors were going around.”

“As the party head, I want to clarify that whatever discussion is taking place, it is about making the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) powerful under the present leadership in Maharashtra,” Sharad Pawar said.

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“Other organisations or individuals are telling us that they came close to us, but no one came close to us. If anyone wants to come, they must merge with us on our terms; we will not go to anyone, and I am making this stand very clear as we proceed to take our decisions,” he said.

Recalling how two robots greeted him at an institute in Baramati, Sharad Pawar spoke about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, which has now come under heavy criticism after the Express investigation.

Sharad Pawar said, “We just heard our colleague Jitendra Awhad explaining to us about the wrongdoings in the SIR process. I fear that these robots and the tools of Artificial Intelligence will be used to decide and change election results.”

“That is why I have advised our state president that this is a completely new technical method. After reviewing information from Russia, America, Europe and other countries, it is clear that artificial intelligence comes with both benefits and drawbacks,” he said.