India, Jan. 30 -- Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was keen on uniting the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party, and the merger was on the verge of completion, a close associate of the late leader has claimed.

Kiran Gujar, who has been associated with Ajit Pawar since before his entry into politics in the mid-1980s, told PTI on Thursday that Pawar had confided in him just five days before the fatal plane crash that claimed his life. "He was 100 per cent keen on merging both factions. He told me the entire process was complete and the merger was imminent within days," Gujar said.

During the recent civic polls, which both factions contested together, Ajit Pawar had also told select journalists that he intended to mer...