Congress-NCP to stake claim to form govt tomorrow

Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel today said the Congress and NCP, which comprise 144 members in the Maharashtra Assembly of 288 members, will stake claim to form a government in the state tomorrow.

Ending the 14-day impasse in forming a government after the assembly election results were announced on October 22, Mr Patel told reporters that the government would be formed later.

He said, ''the allocation of the portfolios to the respective parties would be known on the day of swearing.

''This will be a stable government and there is no truth in any formula of sharing the ministry on 23:20 ratio. You would come to know the ministry allocation on the day of swearing in,'' he added. The Congress had won 82 seats and the NCP 62 seats in the 288-member Assembly. The delay in government formation had been due to both parties not seeing eye to eye on the number of ministerial berths and certain key portfolios like Home and Finance.

However, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal finalised the power sharing formula with the respective high commands of their parties.

Mr Chavan and Mr Patel had yesterday asserted that a Congress-NCP ministry would be be constituted within 48 hours after Governor S C Jamir had summoned both Mr Chavan and Mr Bhujbal to ascertain their views on government formation and delay in installing the government.

Senior NCP leaders including Mr Bhujbal, state unit president R R Patil, Praful Patel were in talks with congress leader Ahmed Patel, political advisor to AICC president Sonia Gandhi. The two parties are likely to give their letter of consent to Mr Jamir later today.

The new Cabinet will be headed by Mr Chavan and his deputy Bhujbal. Opposition BJP-Shiv Sena had called for President's rule in the state in view of the delay.

-- (UNI) -- 05DR81.xml

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