NCP chief Sharad Pawar softens stance, now open to allowing rebel political leaders into the NCP-SP.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar has softened his stance on rebel political leaders, stating that he is now open to allowing them into his political outfit, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP), but those who wanted to "weaken" the party would not be taken in. Previously, Pawar had stated that there was no room for those who rebelled and split their parties. The NCP-SP chief made his new position known during a joint media address with Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray.