Maharashtra: Congress to be content with Speaker’s post, 12 ministerial berths

New Delhi, Dec 01: After winning the trust vote, the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress alliance appears to have some consensus with regard to the ministerial berths.

The Congress had asked for the post of Deputy Chief Minister, but negotiations have resulted in the NCP getting the post. The Congress would settle for the post of Speaker and 12 ministerial berths.

The NCP emerged as the biggest beneficiary with the post of Deputy CM and 16 ministerial berths.

The Shiv Sena on the other hand gets 15 berths. There were internal contradictions between the Congress and NCP over the berths. The Congress had sought the post of Deputy CM, but the NCP was unwilling to give the same away.

On Friday the Congress had made a claim for the post of deputy CM and the NCP had shot this down.

These disagreements had led to the postponement of the Cabinet meeting. A Cabinet meeting was to be held immediately after the floor test. However there were some issues that needed to be ironed out before the same was finalised, a Congress leader informed OneIndia.

The Congress had upped the ante and asked for the post of Deputy CM as it does not want to be left behind. It indicated to the NCP that it would let go of the Speaker's post and take up the deputy CM's post instead.

The other point of contention between the two parties was the person to be nominated as Speaker.

The NCP was not happy with the decision of the Congress to nominate Prithviraj Chavan as the Speaker.

For the post of Speaker, the NCP asked the Congress to suggest three names. The NCP it may be recalled had recommended three names for the post of Speaker in 1999 when it formed the government with the Congress. Although the Congress had not agreed to the condition, it has the names of Varsha Gaikwad and K C Padvi ready in case the nomination of Chavan does not go through.