Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Sonia Gandhi-led Congress have finalised the power-sharing deal in Maharashtra and look set to form the government.
As talks on government formation move ahead, with even a date of a formal announcement in place, NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena have come up with the name for their proposed alliance in Maharashtra. Sources said the new alliance will be called 'Maha Vikas Aghadi'.
Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Sonia Gandhi-led Congress have finalised the power-sharing deal in Maharashtra and look set to form the government.
With the Congress Working Committee's in-principle approval to form a coalition government on Thursday, the road to a formal announcement on Saturday seems clear.
According to the deal agreed upon between the leaders of the three parties, Uddhav Thackeray will be the chief minister for 5 years while two deputy chief ministers - one each from NCP and Congress - will serve alongside him.
Sources said Ajit Pawar of the NCP and Balasaheb Thorat of the Congress are likely to become deputy CMs.
The three parties have also agreed upon a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) to run a coalition government, discussed and finalised over the week. Sources said there will be no compromise on the CMP.
The three parties are likely to share ministerial berths according to their strength in the assembly. Accordingly, 16-15-12 formula is being charted out between Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, respectively.
The council of ministers Maharashtra can have 43 members. The allocation of portfolios to each party still needs to be finalised.
Details regarding the assembly speaker's post also need to be ironed out. It is clear that the NCP-Congress combine will get the post but the two parties have not yet decided who will be their candidate.
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.
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