NCP, Congress plan another round of meeting to discuss draft Common Minimum Programme

Even after 25 days since the announcement of Maharashtra assembly election results on October 24, the state is yet to get a new government. As the BJP refused to cede to Shiv Sena's demand of rotational chief minister, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party is engaged in talks with Congress and NCP to form the government. 

However, despite several rounds of talks between the senior leaders of the three parties, they are yet to arrive at an agreement on a Common Minimum Programme (CMP). A day after NCP chief Sharad Pawar met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, reports said another round of meeting between the leaders of the two parties is planned for Wednesday. 

NCP leaders Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, Ajit Pawar and Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge, Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Chavan, and others will be present in the meeting, ANI reported.

The meeting is being held to give final shape to the CMP. The final draft will be vetted by top leadership of both parties before taking it for further discussion with Shiv Sena.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mrs Gandhi met Ahmed Patel, AK Antony and Mallikarjun Kharge at her residence to discuss political situation in Maharashtra.

Uddhav Thackeray has also called a meeting of party MLAs on November 22 at his residence in Mumbai. The agenda of the meeting is not yet clear but he is likely to discuss the alliance formation. 

Congress and NCP have been locked in talks with Shiv Sena over government formation after Thackeray-led party's alliance with the BJP fell apart. BJP and Shiv Sena fought Maharashtra elections together but fell out over the later's demand of '50-50' formula or a rotational chief minister. 

Shiv Sena and BJP contested the recently-held assembly elections together but failed to reach an agreement for government formation. After BJP failed to stake claim to form the government, the Shiv Sena has tried to rope in NCP and Congress for an alliance government. 

In the recently-concluded assembly elections, the BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 105 seats while the Shiv Sena has 56 MLAs in the 288-member assembly. NCP and Congress won 54 and 44 seats, respectively.

President's Rule was imposed in the state last week after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's report to Centre that no stable government was possible in Maharashtra under the current political scenario.