Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 20 (IANS) The Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K) of K. Karunakaran Wednesday formally cleared the proposal to merge the party with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

"The general body of the DIC-K has unanimously passed a resolution to merge our party with the NCP," DIC-K president K. Muraleedharan told reporters here.

"The move will help the return of the true Congressmen and a revival of the Congress ideology at the national level," he said.

The general body meeting was held after Karunakaran and NCP chief Sharad Pawar met at Kozhikode Sep 12 and decided to join hands.

Karunakaran, a Congress rebel, launched the new party in May 2005, aiming to beat the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). However, after the Communist Party of India-Marxist denied him entry into the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in January, Karunakaran beat a hasty retreat and joined hands with the UDF to fight the April-May assembly polls.

Karunakaran's stars did not help him in the polls as 17 of the 18 DIC-K candidates including his son Muraleedharan failed to win.

The move to merge the DIC-K with the NCP has not gone well with several senior leaders, many of whom are set to return to the Congress.

When the DIC-K was formed, nine legislators had resigned form the Congress and joined the new party. However, all of them, barring T.V. Chandramohan and M.P. Gangadharan, Wednesday announced in Kochi their decision to rejoin the Congress.