NCP, Cong fail to agree

MUMBAI, Oct 11 (UNI) — Efforts to form the new government in Maharashtra continued to remain deadlocked with the Congress and its breakaway Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), engaged in a tug of war over the post of Chief Minister and the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance failing to muster the requisite number to stake its claim so far.

The Congress and the NCP talks remained inconclusive on the third day today and were suspended till Wednesday, to felicitate both sides to hold consultations with their respective party high commands.

Both the Congress and the NCP failed to reach any compromise on the issue of the post of the Chief Minister with the Congress state unit President Prataprao Bhosale insisting his party's natural claim for the post on the basis of its being the single largest party in the Legislative Assembly while the NCP with 58 members in the newly-elected Legislative Assembly not ready to climb down on this issue. Both Mr Bhosale and Mr Bhujbal while talking to reporters separately said their respective party would prefer to sit in the Opposition but not compromise at any cost on the issue of chief ministership.

However, both parties appeared hopeful of a positive outcome of their ongoing negotiations and form a secular and stable alternative government in the state to stall the comeback of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance whom they described as "fundamentalist forces".

Mr Bhosale said he had urged the NCP not to make unreasonable demands and resolve to work together in the larger interest of the state by sinking all differences and bitterness of the past.

Earlier, in the day NCP President Sharad Pawar denied that his party was simultaneously negotiating with the BJP for government formation. He said he was hopeful of a "good output" from the discussions with the Congress and described party colleague and former Chief Minister Sudhakarrao Naik's statement claiming that the NCP had worked out a power sharing formula with the BJP-Sena alliance, as the latter's "personal view."

He also scotched the rumours about likely split in the NCP. While asserting that the party was intact, he dubbed the reports appearing in a section of the Press about the split as baseless and misleading.

Mr Pawar who arrived in the city last night met his party leaders involved in the negotiation with the Congress on the government formation. They apprised him of the developments so far, before they went to hold the second round of talks with Mr Bhosale, the newly-elected CLP leader Vilasrao Deshmukh, and other senior leaders, including Suresh Kalamadi and Dr Patangrao Kadam.

They also held one more round of talks this afternoon before deciding to resume the talks on Wednesday after they received the views of their respective high commands on the proposals put forward by both sides.

Meanwhile, the NCP Legislature Party which met here today deferred the election of its leader till tomorrow.

A high-pitched drama fuelled by reported mutual feud over the post of chief ministership was witnessed in the Shiv-Sena BJP camp despite the two partners of the alliance having elected their joint legislature party leader yesterday by retaining the present Chief Minister Narayan Rane, on the post.

However, the dispute over the issue was settled amicably after Minister of Information and Broadcasting Pramod Mahajan airdashed to Mumbai this evening and held a meeting of the newly-elected members of the two alliance partners and their senior leaders. Former Chief Minister and newly-elected Sena member of the Lok Sabha, Mr Manohar Joshi represented the Sena high command at the talks.

The Sena-BJP which was to call on the Governor to stake its claim to form the government postponed its move for the second time today as it had still not been able to reach the magic figure of 145 required to prove simple majority in the House of 288 elected members, Mr Mahajan said.

He denied that the postponement of the alliance decision to meet the Governor was due to a dispute over the post of chief ministership between the Sena and the BJP.

The Sena-BJP combine has the strength of 125 members in the Legislative Assembly and are still short of 15 members in addition to the support it enjoyed of five independents. The Congress has won 75 members and the NCP 58 members and along with their allies as well as friendly parties claim to be in a position to reach the requisite number to prove simple majority. The Congress has already staked its claim last week to form the government.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Narayan Rane along with his Council of Ministers submitted their resignations to Governor P.C. Alexander, who asked the Chief Minister to continue in office till the new government was installed in the state.

The delay in government formation caused by the fractured majority continued to add to the anxiety of the industry, business and the common people who continued to flood the offices and newspapers and news agencies with frantic inquiry calls to know about the latest developments.