MUMBAI, May 17 -- Three days after a controversy over fresh appointments to its national working committee (NWC), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) went into damage-control mode on Saturday. It clarified that senior leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare continue to retain top positions in the party, that is, national working president and Maharashtra president, respectively. To paper over differences in the NCP's top leadership, the party called media reports "inaccurate" and, to present a united front, a media interaction was organised on Saturday following a directive by NCP president Sunetra Pawar. It was addressed by three leaders - Umesh Patil, Solapur district president, Avinash Adik, NCP national secretary, and Sanjay Tatkare, the NCP's office-secretary and a relative of Sunil Tatkare. "Praful Patel remains the party's national working president, just as he was earlier. Similarly, Sunil Tatkare continues to serve as the Maharashtra unit president," said Patil. Calling media reports on the controversy "inaccurate", he added, "We are here to ensure that all rumours are put to rest from today onwards." Controversy broke out after the NCP announced a new list of NWC members and office bearers recently. Although including Patel and Tatkare, it had omitted to mention their designations in the party. The list came to light after it was uploaded by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on its portal. It described Praful Patel as "NCP leader in Rajya Sabha" and Sunil Tatkare as "NCP leader in Lok Sabha". It did not mention their positions within the party, while the designations of other leaders were clearly mentioned. The NCP had sent its list of key functionaries to the ECI, a practice all parties observe at regular intervals. After it became public, Pawar attributed the exclusions to a "clerical error". "A list of office bearers of the NCP circulating in the media has a clerical mistake and will be corrected soon," she had said in a post on X, after word got out on Tuesday. Patil said the list had been submitted to the ECI on the advice of the party's advocates following the sudden death of NCP president Ajit Pawar. He said it was provisional and could be revised in the upcoming meeting. "It is the party's highest decision-making body and has the authority to take all organisational decisions. Corrections can also be made - some names may be added, while others may be removed. A meeting will be convened soon in this regard," he said. Rumblings of dissent within the party leadership surfaced after Ajit Pawar's death in January, and just as his wife Sunetra has been settling into her role as NCP chief. While Patel was unreachable on Saturday, Tatkare chose not to comment on the controversy. "I will speak when I feel the time is right. I have had a political career spanning 42 years. Our focus is to strengthen the party in the absence of Ajit Dada (Pawar). Sunetra Vahini (Pawar) and other senior leaders such as Praful bhai, Walse-Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Hasan Mushrif and Dhananjay Munde will come together to resolve the issues. We are all working towards the same objective, and a meeting will be held soon," he said on Friday....