Pawar meets Sonia in New Delhi, but no end to Maharashtra government formation suspense

The suspense over formation of Maharashtra’s next government continued on Monday after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who met Congress president

The suspense over formation of Maharashtra’s next government continued on Monday after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi, said they had no discussion on a possible alliance with Shiv Sena. While Pawar said he had briefed Gandhi about the current political situation in Maharashtra, he denied chalking out any common minimum programme (CMP) for an alliance with Sena.

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“There was no talk of government formation in our meeting; this meeting was all about discussing Congress and NCP,” said Pawar, adding that his party can’t decide on an alliance with Sena alone. “We are in an alliance with Congress.”

The Congress, meanwhile, said leaders from both parties will meet in the next few days. Randeep Singh Surjewala, chief spokersperson of Congress, tweeted: “Sh. Sharad Pawar met the Congress President today and briefed her on the situation in Maharashtra. It was decided that in a day or two, representatives from NCP & Congress will meet in Delhi to discuss the way forward.”

Minutes after Pawar spoke to media, Sena MP Sanjay Raut met the NCP chief at his New Delhi residence. After a 20-minute meeting, Raut said he met Pawar to request him to brief Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the difficulty farmers in Maharashtra are facing after losing their crop to unseasonal rain. Raut declined to comment on Pawar’s statements after meeting Gandhi. “The responsibility to form the government was not ours; the ones who had that responsibility ran away. But I am confident we will have a stable government in place soon,” Raut said in a veiled jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Despite the contradictory statements from Congress, NCP and Sena, leaders from the parties claimed that their “meetings were on the right track”, although the decision on forming the alliance may take some more time.

Congress and NCP leaders are expected to meet in New Delhi over the next two days to further discuss the power-sharing between the three parties and the CMP, which will form the basis for the proposed alliance government. Balasaheb Thorat, Prithviraj Chavan and Ashok Chavan from Congress and Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Nawab Malik and Sunil Tatkare from NCP are among the senior leaders who will be involved in the meetings.

The two parties are also involving their smaller allies in the discussions, after parties such as Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Sanghatana expressed their unhappiness for not taking them on board during the talks for government formation.

The results for the Assembly elections were announced on October 24, with BJP emerging the single-largest party (105 seats), followed by Sena (56), NCP (54) and Congress (44). With none of the parties able to prove majority (145 MLAs) in the 288-member Assembly, President’s rule was imposed in Maharashtra on November 12.

Pawar’s meeting with Gandhi came in the backdrop of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to cancel his recently announced Ayodhya visit on “security grounds”. The change in Thackeray’s programme came after Congress and NCP leaders conveyed their discomfort at the visit, which they said would have “accentuated Sena’s hardcore Hindutva stand”.

Pawar, who is said to be the brain behind the alliance between NCP, Congress and Sena, countered the question about joining hands with BJP. “We have contested elections against whom?” he asked.

NCP leaders, who did not wish to be named, said the party has decided to join hands with Sena to form a coalition government along with Congress, at its core committee meeting held on Sunday in Pune. “The party will not declare anything unless the power-sharing is finalised by all the three parties. We are still in the process of finalising details and this may a few more days. We don’t want the coalition government to fall over differences among the alliance partners,” said a senior NCP leader, on condition of anonymity.

A senior Sena functionary, too, said back-channel discussions with NCP and Congress are on. “The talks are going on smoothly. A draft CMP is ready; now the leadership of the three parties would look at it and decide. Pawarji is known for such statements to remain in the limelight. The process is being followed,” he said.

If the three parties come together, their tally will be 154 seats, nine more than what is needed to prove majority in the Assembly.