India, Feb. 1 -- Senior leaders of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Saturday maintained a guarded silence on the prospects of the merger of the rival factions of the party, even as Union Minister Piyush Goyal said he did not expect it to happen anytime soon.

The NCP (SP) leaders, on the other hand, claimed that Ajit Pawar, who died in an air crash on January 28, very much wanted the two factions to reunite, but party supremo Sharad Pawar conceded that the process might face a roadblock now. Ajit Pawar's wife, Sunetra Pawar, was on Saturday evening sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, filling the vacancy created by her husband's demise.

Union minister Goyal said the NCP, headed by Ajit Pawar, as part of the M...