Wednesday, March 16 2005 14:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ranchi: The Jharkhand unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), having one MLA in the Assembly, was today (Mar 16, 2005) merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

This was announced at a joint press conference by the BJP State unit president, Raghubar Das and NCP State unit president Dhrub Bhagat.

Bhagat said that the NCP State unit had been ''dissolved'' on March 11.

The merger of NCP with BJP is significant in the backdrop of NCP MLA Kamlesh Singh's name being figured during swearing in of the Arjun Munda Council of Ministers on Saturday (Mar 19, 2005). He was also a Minister in the nine-day old Shibu Soren Cabinet.

Singh, ailing with heart problem, is yet to take oath in the Assembly.