Sonia, Cong top guns talk Maha

New Delhi, November 19 

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with senior party leaders AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge and KC Venugopal on Tuesday as the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP closed in on a deal for government formation in Maharashtra with the issue of power sharing among the three parties being resolved within.

The Congress will hold talks with Nationalist Congress Party in New Delhi to finalise the draft common minimum programme (CMP) which will be vetted by the leadership. Kharge will lead the talks along with close Rahul Gandhi aide Venugopal and state leaders will be included, said sources.

Though a meeting of Congress leaders with the NCP was scheduled on Tuesday, it was called off due to pre-occupation of Congress leaders with Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary events, NCP leader Nawab Malik said. He said Congress leaders requested that the meeting be postponed to Wednesday.

The sources said the NCP was still pushing for the rotational arrangement for the top post but the first term of chief ministership is likely to go to the Shiv Sena. The deliberations on power sharing will be finalised by the high-powered committee for the three parties in this week and the final stamp will be put by the leaders of all the three parties.

In Delhi on Tuesday, Sena Rajya MP Sanjay Raut said a Shiv Sena-led alliance government would be in power in Maharashtra early next month. Raut said there were no doubts in the Sena on government formation, but it was the media that was creating confusion. — Agencies