Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 11 (IANS) The Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K) Monday nominated its founder K. Karunakaran and president K. Muraleedharan to initiate talks with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on merger of the two parties.
"The state executive of the party that met here today decided to entrust Karunakaran and myself to have talks with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and take an appropriate decision which includes a merger also," Muraleedharan told reporters.
The talks would be held at Kozhikode Tuesday. Pawar, the central agriculture minister, is on a visit to Kerala to assess the farming sector scene.
Explaining the rationale behind the new decision, Muraleedharan said joining of hands by Karunakaran and Pawar would strengthen the Congress culture.
"It was due to the wrong decisions of the Congress high command that leaders like Pawar, Karunakaran and K. Natwar Singh had to go out of the party. A final decision on the merger between our parties will be finalised in a week's time."
The first round of discussions on the DIC-K-NCP merger took place early this month.
The NCP is an ally of the Left Democratic Front that is led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist. It has just one legislator in the 140-seat Kerala assembly.