Senior Congress leader K Karunakaran on Saturday denied he was quitting Congress to join the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.

On Friday, while welcoming another senior Congress leader, V C Shukla, into the NCP fold in Mumbai, Pawar had hinted at the possibility of a senior leader from Kerala joining the party.

With Karunakaran locked in a fight with the Congress high command and Chief Minister A K Antony, everyone assumed Pawar was referring to him.

"I will not join any other party under any circumstances and there is no need for me to do so," Karunakaran told journalists.

He, however, said Pawar did speak to him over the phone and offered support in the backdrop of the ongoing crisis in the Kerala Congress. "However, we did not discuss any party matters," Karunakaran said.

Asked whether Pawar was not alluding to him when he referred to 'a senior leader from Kerala,' Karunakaran quipped: "Did he say the seniormost leader?"