V C Shukla to join NCP on Friday

Senior Congress leader, V C Shukla, will join the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Friday in Mumbai, sources close to Shukla said.

He will take the primary membership of the party at Pawar's Peddar Road residence, the sources said.

Shukla, it is learnt, has already written to Congress chief, Sonia Gandhi, explaining his decision to quit the party.

The sulking former Union minister had felt ignored after the creation of the new state of Chhatisgarh and had, on more than one occasion, complained about the treatment meted out to him by Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and his supporters.

Meanwhile, the NCP's Chhattisgarh unit has been dissolved by the party general secretary in-charge of the state, Praful Patel.