Amidst blame game and twists, Sonia Gandhi deputes her trusted lieutenants to meet Pawar in Mumbai

Mumbai:

Amidst the drama over government formation in Maharashtra continues to take bizarre turns, as on Tuesday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi deputed AICC Maharashtra incharge Mallikarjun Kharge, her political strategist Ahmed Patel and K C Venugopal to meet Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar in Mumbai.

Disclosing this AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal disclosed “Congress president Sonia Gandhi spoke to NCP president Sharad Pawar today morning and has deputed Ahmed Patel and Mallikarjun Kharge and myself for holding further discussions with Sharad Pawar. We three are going to Mumbai now and will meet him at the earliest”. Sources disclosed that earlier the meeting was scheduled to be held at around 4.00 pm in Mumbai.

However, earlier in the day a blame game erupted between the Congress and the NCP with senior Congress leader Manikrao Thakare claiming that NCP president Sharad Pawar called on Ahmed Patel and sought two more day’s time to finalize all formalities of government formation. However, senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar denied that the NCP chief had called Patel. Meanwhile, the Congress has put on hold the visit of its top leaders to Mumbai for talks with the NCP on government formation.

The deadline given by Maharashtra Governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari is to end today evening by 8.30 pm. Thakare argued that it was Pawar senior who called up the party leadership in Delhi and requested them not to come now as nothing was decided as yet. Doubts and suspicions are being raised over for whose benefit is this political game is being played. It may be recalled that on November 11, the Governor had turned down the request of the Sena for extension of the deadline granted to it to prove it had the support of the 145 MLAs.

The NCP has argued that it needs time to meet its 54 MLAs, know their views on government formation, whom should they support. Besides that they argue that since the party MLAs are at present located in their respective constituencies, it will take time to get their names, constituency name, contact numbers and signatures as per the pro-forma of the letter of support.

On the other hand NCPs Ajit Pawar squarely blamed the Congress for the delay in giving its consent to support the Sena in its bid to stake claim at government formation. He said that the NCP was waiting for the Congress response which did not come on time. “There was no misunderstanding. We contested together and are together. All the three political parties (Congress, NCP and Sena) need to form a stable government. It is difficult for all of us to get signatures of all the MLAs. We cannot complete the process today”.

He further pointed out “Congress MLAs are in Jaipur, while their leaders are in New Delhi. Even though all the three (Congress, NCP and Sena) agree, it is still not possible to complete the process in such a short time. Even though the Presidents Rule is imposed it does not matter. When all the three political parties agree to stake claim at government formation, the Presidents Rule will have to be lifted”.

However, both the Congress and NCP once again blamed each other for the delay in supporting the Sena’s bid. Thakare argued that it was at the behest of NCP president who sought a day’s time, hence the delay. Whereas, Ajit Pawar accused the Congress of delay.

Meanwhile, NCP president called on a recuperating Sena leader Sanjay Raut at Lilavati Hospital in Bandra West. From his hospital bed, Raut tweeted “koshish karne walo ki har nahi hoti. Hum honge kamyaab” (those who give it a try, never fail, we shall succeed).

Later on Sena president Uddhav Thackeray called on Raut at Lilavati Hospital where he also met BJP leader Harshavardhan Patil at the gates. Besides this former Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar too called on Raut at Lilavati Hospital to inquire about the Sena leaders health. Sources claimed that in behind the scene developments, a prominent businessman from Mumbai was trying to broker a truce between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sena and end the deadlock. However, a section in the BJP has been denying any such move.