Mumbai: The Shiv Sena suffered a setback in its efforts to cobble up a non-BJP government in Maharashtra with the Congress at the last moment announcing its decision for holding more talks with the NCP on supporting the Uddhav Thackeray-led party. It should be stated here that earlier in the day, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had sent letters of support to the Shiv Sena as well as to the Maharashtra governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
Putting up a brave front, Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray told reporters outside Raj Bhavan here Monday night that his party’s claim on formation of a government still stands, as the two parties have agreed ‘in-principle’ to support the Sena-led government. Aditya Thackeray, however, didn’t take names of the Congress and the NCP.
Aaditya Thackeray also informed that Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari refused to grant more time to the Shiv Sena to muster numbers.
“We have initiated talks with two parties. Both the parties have expressed their support in-principle to the Shiv Sena,” said Aditya.
“We informed the Maharashtra governor about our willingness to stake a claim for government formation. Shiv Sena MLAs have already issued their support in written,” informed Aditya.
The two parties (read NCP and Congress) need few more days to complete their procedures. Hence we sought time from the governor but he refused to grant it,” added Aditya.
Meanwhile BJP sources claimed that the Shiv Sena has not yet received letters of support from the Congress and the NCP to enable it to stake claim to form the next government in Maharashtra.
The Congress meanwhile decided to hold further talks with ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on whether to support the Shiv Sena to form a government in Maharashtra.
“The Congress President has spoken to Sharad Pawarji. The party will have further discussions with the NCP,” a statement issued by party general secretary KC Venugopal said.
“The Congress Working Committee met this morning and held a detailed discussion on the situation in Maharashtra after which a consultation was held with Maharashtra Congress leaders,” Venugopal said in a written statement.
Earlier in the day in a telephonic conversation with Sonia Gandhi, Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray sought her party’s support to form government.
PTI
