A rattled Congress which was accused of delaying formation of alternative government on Saturday said that it would fight it out politically and legally by democratic means.
"We will fight it out, politically and legally," Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi's aide Ahmed Patel told a news conference.
According to Patel, first Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari invited the BJP, then the Shiv Sena and finally the NCP but the Congress was totally ignored.
"We were not given a chance to stake claim," he said.
"The BJP has bypassed the democratic process," he said, adding that the swearing in was done in a shameless manner.
"The democracy is shattered," he said, adding that it was done in a clandestine manner.
"The incident will be written in black ink in Maharashtra's history," he said.
He also said that there was no delay on part of the Congress. "The moment we got a formal call from Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray we reached out to them," he said.
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