[1]At a high-level meeting of the NCP presided over by its chief Sharad Pawar on Monday it was decided the party will remain with the UPA-II till 2014 elections.
Coming out of the meeting, Union Minister for Heavy Industries Praful Patel said his party won't snap ties with the ruling UPA coalition till the next elections.
He said the final decision on the NCP's stand on its alliance with Congress would be taken in a day or two.
'We will continue to support the UPA and its government till the end,' says Patel.
Further, he clarified that Sharad Pawar was not nurturing high hopes of becoming the Prime Minister and the current standoff with the Congress was not a play to seek anything from the ruling coaltion.
However, to vent his air of displeasure, Sharad Pawar was unlikely to attend the PM's dinner being hosted on Monday evening as farewell event for the outgoing President Pratibha Patil.
According to an NCP source, 'ministers would not be attending the dinner' being hosted at Hyderabad house. A party insider said, Pawar was not expected to attend the meeting too.
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