New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar is expected to meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Monday amid ongoing power tussle of the BJP and the Shiv Sena over government formation in Maharashtra. This meeting came days after his meet with Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut. The details of the meeting, however, have not been disclosed.
The Shiv Sena has sought the chief minister’s post on a rotational basis and 50:50 division of portfolios but the BJP has refused to concede the demand. The BJP has maintained that Devendra Fadnavis will continue to hold the chief minister’s post for the next five years.
Earlier, Sanjay Raut had said that if Shiv Sena decided, it would get required numbers to form a stable government in the state.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the NCP did not clear its stand on Sena’s reported offer as it could not take a call alone since it had contested the elections in alliance with Congress.
Congress general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra Mallikarjun Kharge and former union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde are among the leaders who opposed to doing any business with the Shiv Sena.
Other leaders such as former chief ministers Ashok Chavan and Prithiviraj Chavan, however, believed that the party should be open to extending outside support to an “alternative government” that could keep the BJP out of power.
The BJP won 105 seats and the Sena bagged 56 in the 288-member Assembly. The opposition Nationalist Congress Party has 54 seats while its alliance partner Congress has 44. Independents and smaller parties together – including partners of both alliances – have 29 seats.
