As the 7.30 pm deadline ended for Shiv Sena, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday night invited the NCP asking it to express "willingness and ability to form government". State unit NCP president Jayant Patil said the party will discuss the issue with Congress and get back to the governor by 8:30 pm on Tuesday.
In politics, everyone is a friend and everyone is a foe. Equations change, alliances are forged and broken and a person on political sidelines sometimes suddenly finds himself on the throne.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has opted out of race for government formation in Maharashtra, has adopted a 'wait and watch' policy in the state which saw hectic activity in camps of major non-BJP parties on Monday.
The Governor of Maharashtra has adopted the constitutional path to negate horse-trading in run-up to the government formation in the state, say Constitution experts.
The decision of the Maharashtra party to snap ties came following years of unease in the alliance and reached a flash point after the recent assembly election results, with the Sena accusing the BJP of breaking "promise" of equal division of power in the state.
Deadlock is continuing in Maharashtra as Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has refused more time to Shiv Sena in government formation. A 7:30 pm deadline was set today for Uddhav Thackeray's party to express willingness to form government in Maharashtra. However, Sena could not get the numbers required before the deadline.
The Congress, which held marathon meetings during the day, issued a statement saying it will hold "further discussion" with its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which was all inclined to support the Shiv Sena in the state.
The DMK President M.K. Stalin on Monday said the party will fight the local body elections in alliance with other parties. He said he is eagerly waiting for the elections
A resort in the Rajasthan capital has become one of the centres of power play amid efforts to form the government in Maharashtra. Since Friday evening, the new Congress MLAs are holed up at the resort on Delhi Road near here while party leaders discuss whether to support the Shiv Sena claim to power in Maharashtra.
Congress party's crucial meeting with its MLAs from Maharashtra began here at 4 p.m. on Monday, with the party set to take a final call on supporting a Shiv Sena-led government in the state.
Amid a flurry of meetings in the national capital and in Mumbai, the NCP has said that it will decide on whether to support a Shiv Sena-led government in coordination with its ally the Congress
With the Maharashtra governor inviting the Shiv Sena to stake claim, party chief Uddhav Thackeray now faces the biggest test of his political life to form a Sena-led government in the state, if the Congress and NCP decide to support him.
"There is no question of a compromise, we (Congress) act in a very very responsible manner and we do look to Sharad Pawar (NCP chief), who is a senior leader in Maharashtra, to also decide what should be the outcome," Raju said
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari earlier invited the Shiv Sena, which has 56 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, to stake claim to form a government by 7.30 pm on Monday. Koshyari invited the Shiv Sena after the BJP, the single largest party with 105 seats, decided against staking claim to form government in the state.
Arvind Sawant, the lone Shiv Sena representative in the Modi Cabinet, has resigned amid the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra. Sawant was serving as the Union Minister for Heavy Industries.
With the deadlock over government formation continuing in Maharashtra, NCP leader Nawab Malik on Monday said it is the responsibility of "all of us" to give an alternative considering the plight of people in the state.
Sources said NCP chief Sharad Pawar may also meet the Congress president on Monday to discuss the possibility of the two parties supporting a Sena-led government. Kharge had earlier said in Jaipur that his party has "accepted" the public mandate to it to sit in the opposition in the state.
After the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party also announced on Monday that it had not taken a final decision on extending support to the Shiv Sena for forming the government.
Maharashtra Congress leaders will arrive in Delhi Monday evening, wherein a decision and a formal announcement on supporting the Shiv Sena is expected.
Former Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam has raised a red flag against the party extending support to Sena, while his successor and former union minister Milind Deora wants to see a Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine government.
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