M'rashtra CM issue: Cong-NCP may seek CPI's help

The CPI(M) veteran is expected to mediate if the two allies fail to break the impasse over power sharing in Maharashtra.

Leaders of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are seeking Marxist patriarch Harkishen Singh Surjeet's help to sort out the knotty issue of who will be Maharashtra's chief minister.

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Surjeet, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), known for his negotiating skills, is expected to mediate if the two allies, which won 140 of the 288 seats in the October 13 elections to the Maharashtra state assembly, fail to break the impasse over power sharing.

Protracted negotiations since the election results were announced have failed to produce a satisfactory formula, with both parties sticking to their positions.

Reliable sources said that the two parties however resumed backroom negotiations on Saturday after the holidays.

Surjeet is expected to return to New Delhi on Saturday night from a trip to the US, where he had gone for eye treatment and to take part in a get-together of Communist leaders from several countries.

The NCP cited the 1999 formula of power sharing agreed to by the two parties, under which the chief ministership went to the party securing the largest number of seats.