Senior leader Sharad Pawar on Wednesday called a crucial meeting with party leaders and discussed his party’s new symbol and name to fight upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Last week, the Election Commission of India allowed the Sharad Pawar faction to be called the “Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar” for the purposes of voting in the upcoming elections for six Rajya Sabha seats on February 27.

The meeting was held at Pawar’s Modibaug residence in Pune amid speculations on Congress’s proposal to Sharad Pawar to merge his faction into the grand old party and fight all upcoming polls on the same symbol.

However various NCP Sharadchandra Pawar leaders including former minister Anil Deshmukh, party’s Lok Sabha MP Amol Kolhe, and Pune president Prashant Jagtap denied the speculations saying the party has decided to retain its separate identity and will fight polls accordingly. All the party leaders maintained that they would retain a separate identity of their organisation, which Maharashtra has “accepted”.

According to a party leader, three symbols between whistle, banyan tree, and cup-saucer, along with a name to fight upcoming Lok Sabha polls were discussed. At the same time, leaders also discussed joint public meetings with other MVA members.

“There was no discussion on any merger and nor is there any such proposal. What we discussed today was one of the three symbols EC has asked us to choose from,” said Anil Deshmukh.

Among other leaders who attended the meeting were MPs Shrinivas Patil, Supriya Sule, and Vandana Chavan.

Kolhe said, “For almost 25 years, the people of Maharashtra have been with Sharad Pawar and have voted for us. Why will we merge our party with another.”

According to Kolhe, someone intentionally spread the news that the NCP Sharadchandra Pawar is merging with Congress.

“It shows that till the opposition is worried about us. There is unrest among the citizens. As our party, Congress, and Shiv Sena are getting better responses, BJP appears disturbed. They are making the announcement of 400 more seats and another side eyeing opposition party leaders,” the Shirur MP said.

NCP city unit president Prashant Jagtap said, “Party’s senior leaders met and discussed various issues including new party name and symbol.”