Hours after the President’s Rule was imposed in Maharashtra, the Congress and the NCP on Tuesday bought some more time in taking a decision on extending support to the Shiv Sena to form a Government in Maharashtra, on the ground that they needed certain clarifications from each other before going ahead.
On a day when Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari went ahead and recommended the President’s rule more than six hours ahead of the deadline of 8.30 pm he had set for the NCP to revert to him on the Government formation issue, senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge and K C Venugopal held 90-minute-long discussions with NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai.
Addressing a news conference after he and his party colleagues had with NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Ahmed Patel said: “Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray formally reached out to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Me only yesterday for support to form a Government in the state. Since it involved a major decision, we need to meet our pre-poll alliance partner NCP first and seek certain clarifications on Government formation in the State. Once we are through with the discussion, we will hold talks with the Shiv Sena leadership”.
Reiterating that the two parties had not arrived at any decision on extending the support to the Sena, Patel said that the issues on which they needed clarifications from the NCP included formulation of a Common Minimum Programme (CMP). “We wanted to clear between ourselves before talking to the Shiv Sena,” Patel said.
Responding on similar lines, Pawar said: “After we received request from the Shiv Sena for our, we decided to discuss among ourselves first the issues relating to the government formation first before holding talks with the Sena leaders. We would like things to proceed smoothly till the formation of Government,” he said.
Queried as to how the Congress and NCP had reconciled with the ideological differences with the Shiv Sena while going in for power-sharing with the Shiv Sena, Pawar said: “When we reach the stage of holding discussions with the Shiv Sena, we will proceed in the matter while keeping our common ideology in mind”.
Replying to another question, Pawar said: “The issue of power distribution is not before us at this junction. The issue before us is whether to form a Government or not. If the government is to be formed, what should be the agenda of the Government is our immediate objective”.
Alluding to the President’s rule imposed in the State, Pawar said: The Governor has given has given us enough time to discuss all issues relating to Government formation in the coming days”.