NCP, Cong decision will be collective, says Ajit Pawar as deadline set by governor nears – india news

Amid reports that the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar was willing to “wait it out” before staking claim to form the government in Maharashtra, his nephew and senior party leader Ajit Pawar said whatever decision is taken by his party and pre-poll ally Congress will be ‘collective’.

“Whatever decision will be taken will be taken collectively, so we were waiting for Congress response yesterday but it didn’t come, we can’t decide on it alone. There is no misunderstanding, we contested together and are together,” said Ajit Pawar, MLA from the Baramati constituency.

TV channels also reported that the scheduled visit of a Congress delegation to Mumbai for talks with the NCP had been called off and the party instead wanted Pawar to visit Delhi for discussions, which the NCP said was not possible as he had prior engagements.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s erstwhile ally Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress are in talks to explore the possibility of forming the government in the state after the BJP failed to take up the Governor’s invite to form government in Maharashtra where assembly election results were announced on October 24.

The Congress , it is believed, is keen that each and every detail should be discussed before backing a Sena-led ruling arrangement.

The BJP and the Sena contested the assembly elections together and won with 105 and 56 seats respectively, but were unable to come to an agreement on government formation.

Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari invited the NCP to form the government on Monday evening and gave it 24 hours to cobble together a majority after the Shiv Sena failed to secure enough numbers within the deadline prescribed by him, prolonging the fortnight-long political impasse in the state. The Sena was invited by the governor on Sunday evening.

Koshyari had invited the BJP to form the government on Saturday but a day later, the party ditched its bid after it became clear that the Sena would not budge from its demand on rotational CM and key cabinet berths.