Mumbai:
Like the Delhi smog, a thick smog of uncertainty hangs over government formation in Maharashtra as well. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar after meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday clarified that he did not discuss government formation with the Congress president. On the other hand senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut after meeting the NCP chief remarked “the responsibility to form the government was not ours. The ones who had that responsibility ran away. But I am confident that soon we will have a government in place in Maharashtra.”
Speaking to newspersons after meeting the Congress president, the NCP chief remarked “’I briefed her about the current political situation in Maharashtra. We will keep an eye on the situation. Some senior leaders of both parties will discuss and decide future course of action. We did not discuss government formation, we just discussed the situation and numbers. We have to sort out few more things. We have not discussed forming an alliance with any party as yet. We also have to hold discussions with smaller parties who extended their support to us during state polls”.
Pawar stated the NCP will have to consult its alliance partners like the Samajwadi Party about alliance with the Shiv Sena. He further added that there was no discussion on who to support in government formation. When asked about the possibility of rapprochement between Sena and BJP, he remarked “what can we say, they know it better”. When asked to comment upon Independent Lok Sabha MP Navneet Kaur Rana suggestion of a NCP-BJP led coalition government, Pawar shot back “who is Navneet Kaur Rana?”
Meanwhile, AICC spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala 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”. Earlier, in the day, when asked about the new seating arrangement for the Sena in the opposition benches in both the houses of the parliament, Raut shot back “out of NDA does not mean that we are in the UPA.”
