Meanwhile, the Congress claims to have retained 23 cabinet berths to the NCP’s 20.
After 15 days of negotiations, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday resolved their differences over portfolio division, thus paving the way for government formation on Saturday. However, the NCP, the smaller stakeholder (with 62 MLAs to the Congress’s 82), appears to have outsmarted its alliance partner by conceding just one significant portfolio, that of health.
Even this concession, say party insiders, has been made to provide the Congress — which was insisting on the key portfolios of home, finance and energy — with a face-saver.
Meanwhile, the Congress claims to have retained 23 cabinet berths to the NCP’s 20. However, the NCP insists that the final picture will be clear only in a couple of days.
Even as the battle of wills appears to continue on who-won-what, Union civil aviation minister and senior NCP leader Praful Patel insisted that the final decision was “a win-win situation for both the Congress and the NCP”.
“There will be no major surprises. The basis of negotiations was the 1999 formula,” Patel said. “Both the parties have expressed satisfaction over the formula and the swearing-in of the new council of ministers will take place on Saturday. The leaders will meet governor SC Jamir tomorrow (Friday) to hand over the letters of support and stake claim to form the government.”
The last-mile formalities will be finalised during the course of Friday, a senior AICC general secretary told DNA, while Union defence minister AK Antony proclaimed on Thursday that “the deadlock is over, thus paving the way for the Congress and the NCP to form the government in Maharashtra”.
The 48-hour deadline set by chief minister-designate Ashok Chavan threw both parties in a frenzy. The NCP president and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar held a meeting with his senior party leaders at the Mumbai airport as he was travelling to Coimbatore. In Delhi, Antony and Ahmed Patel held meetings with party president Sonia Gandhi, who had met Union industries minister Vilasrao Deshmukh earlier in the day. Chavan, along with Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Manikrao Thakre, had camped in Delhi for most of Thursday.
Immediately after the October 22 results, the NCP had announced that they were willing to return the three extra portfolios - environment, forest and labour - which they had claimed in 2004 and wanted to revert to the 1999 formula which gives them home, health, finance, energy, rural development, public works department and irrigation. However, on Thursday, the NCP managed to retain labour, giving up health, environment and forest, none of which are significant in the party’s scheme of things.
Chavan had argued through the election campaign that the home ministry should be held by the Congress. However, despite the tough posturing, neither the CM nor this party could get the NCP to concede more than they were willing.
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