NCP chief Sharad Pawar will meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday to discuss and formalise issues relating to the two parties’ move to extend their support to the Shiv Sena in forming a three-party front government in Maharashtra.
Talking to media persons after his party’s core committee meeting in Pune, NCP’s national spokesperson Nawab Malik said: “Sharad Pawarji will meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi tomorrow. After this meeting, State NCP and Congress leaders will meet on Tuesday and formalise our future course of action relating to the government formation in the state”
At the core committee meeting chaired by Pawar, the NCP leaders discussed thread bare issues relating to the formation of alternate government in themeeting.
“At the meeting, we discussed the current political situation in the state. Since we contested the elections in alliance with the Congress, we discussed as to how we should move forward in consultation with the Congress,” Malik said.
Former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, ex-Assembly Assembly Speaker Dilip Walse Patil, party leaders Chhagan Bhujbal, Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Mallik, Dhananjay Munde, Supriya Sule, Jitendra Awhad and Sunil Tatkare were present at Sunday’s NCP core committee meeting.
Though Malik was cautious in not spelling out as what exactly transpired at the meeting, informed sources said that the NCP and Congress were in the advanced stage in fornalising a post-poll alliance with the Shiv Sena.
“At tomorrow’s meeting, the NCP president will brief Sonia Gandhi about the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) draft finalised by the leaders of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, seek her inputs and finalise the draft. Similarly, Pawar discuss with her and finalise the power sharing formula that the two parties will propose to Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray for formalising the Government formation deal,” a senior NCP leader said.
Informed sources said that the NCP and Congress had agreed to give the chief minister’s post to the Shiv Sena which, according to them, deserved the post as it walked out of the BJP-led NDA to align with them to form a government.
According to the formula, there will be two deputy chief ministers – being given one each to the NCP and Congress. There appears to be unanimity on the distribution of ministries. While the Shiv Sena and NCP will get 14 ministries each, the Congress will get 12 ministerial berths. As things stand, the Congress may get the crucial State Assembly Speaker’s post.
When the three parties come together, the combined strength of the Shiv Sena (56), NCP (54) and Congress (44) will be 154, nine seats more the simple majority of 145 in the 288-member Assembly. In addition to 154 MLAs, the three parties enjoy the additional support of at least 15 MLAs – most of them independents and those belonging to the smaller parties.