NCP to support Congress from outside: Bhujbal

The stalemate between the Congress and its partner NCP over sharing of the 'creamy' portfolios continued on the 12th day today, when senior NCP leader and outgoing Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said his party would support the Congress from outside till the issue is resolved.

Talking to reporters here, Mr Bhujbal said, ''we have not demanded anything more from the Congress and as long as there is no unanimity on the issue of portfolios, we will support only the Congress government from outside.'' He was addressing the media persons after meeting Maharashtra Governor S C Jamir, who had called both the Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister separately to discuss the government formation.

He said the NCP was ready to support the Congress government from outside till their issues were settled and would join it after the issues were resolved.

Mr Bhujbal said the NCP always supported the Congress and this was evident since 1999 and pointed that the Congress wanted more ministerial berths.

''Neither we want more nor concede more portfolios,'' he added.

Mr Bhujbal has forwarded the hand with an ultimatum, which is unlikely to be accepted. The Congress-NCP combine government will come to power in a couple of days with a 23-20 ratio of ministerial berths.

The NCP has been demanding the allotment of portfolios on the basis of the 1999 formula, while the Congress has been seeking more portfolios arguing that they had won 20 more seats than the NCP in the just-concluded state Assembly elections. The history shows that the delay in swearing in nothwithstanding, the Congress-NCP marriage continued. In 2004, though both the parties fought elections together, the ministry formation was delayed for 10 days as the NCP had won two more seats than the Congress (71 and 69 respectively) and had staked claim for chief ministership. However, after 10 days of dilly-dallying, the matter was settled with NCP getting three more ministries and the Deputy chief minister's post.

In 1999, the NCP had contested against Congress and was at fourth poisition, while the Congress ranked number one. After squbbling for nearly 10 days, then junior Congress leader and now MPCC president Manikrao Thakre went to NCP with a message of forming the government together.

However, this time, a bit different situation is prevailing and the Congress, which won 82 seats, is trying to flex the muscles with NCP (61).

-- (UNI) -- 03BY3.xml

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