NCP to review LS poll performance

Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will hold a review meeting for the party's Lok Sabha poll performance and preparation for the upcoming Assembly elections Saturday. All senior leaders will discuss why they failed and also finalise their future strategy.

Sources in the NCP said that new and young faces will be given preference in the Assembly elections. NCP chief Sharad Pawar will chair the meeting.    

Sources claimed that the debacle of the party in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra had forced the party to re-think its strategy. A leader, requesting anonymity, said that the party will be investing a lot more on young and fresh faces in the state. There are likely to be organisational chan-ges in the party as well.

Mr Pawar is likely to discuss possible changes in the organisation. New faces will be brought to the forefront and they will be given responsibility during the Assembly polls, he added.

Amid talks of a Congress-NCP merger, party spokesperson Nawab Malik denied any such possibility and said that the meeting between Mr Pawar and Congress president Rahul Gandhi was merely to discuss the upcoming Assembly polls in Maharashtra and the drought in the state.