India, Jan. 24 -- When candidates of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) filed their nomination papers on Wednesday for February's zilla parishad and panchayat samiti polls on the Analog clock symbol, it set the rumour mills buzzing again on a possible merger of the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party.

The NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar in 1999, split into two factions in 2023. The party name and its clock symbol went to the faction headed by his nephew Ajit Pawar who joined the BJP and Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra while the Sharad Pawar faction was given the symbol of a man playing the tutari, a musical instrument.

Talks of a merger have been spurred by the 85-year-old Sharad Pawar's retreat from active...