Shah says there will be Sena-BJP govt in Maha: Athawale

As the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress brainstorm over the formation of a government in Maharashtra, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Sunday claimed that he has been assured by Home Minister Amit Shah that a BJP-Sena government will be formed in the state.

Athawale's remarks came on a day when NCP supremo Sharad Pawar was closeted with leaders of his party in Pune, to discuss issues related to government formation in Maharashtra.

“I told Amit bhai that if he mediates, then a way can be found out, to which he (Shah) told me not to worry, everything will be fine. BJP & Shiv Sena will come together to form government,” said Athawale, whose Republican Party of India (A) is part of the BJP-led NDA both at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

Leaders of the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena have finalised a draft common minimum programme to guide the grand coalition government in Maharashtra and a final call was expected to be taken at a meeting between Pawar and Congress President Sonia Gandhi either on Monday or Tuesday.

The buzz in the political circles in the national capital is that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray could also join Pawar during the meeting with Gandhi, to formally announce their alliance in Maharashtra.

Pawar was scheduled to meet Gandhi on Sunday, but the meeting had to be postponed because of the NCP Core Committee meeting in Pune. Now, Pawar was likely to meet Gandhi's emissaries Ahmed Patel, K C Venugopal and Mallikarjun Kharge said on Monday, before meeting the Congress president.

Kharge, the AICC General Secretary in-charge of Maharashtra, dismissed talk of a break in the ranks of the Congress and the NCP and asserted that their legislators were intact.

“If BJP claimed to have the numbers, it should have formed the government by now,” Kharge said.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that Shiv Sena members, in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, have been allotted seats among the opposition block.

“Shiv Sena is trying to work with Congress, so naturally, they have opted to sit in opposition. We are allotting them seats in opposition both in Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha,” Joshi told reporters here.