Maharashtra deadlock: Sharad Pawar to meet Sonia Gandhi today

Mumbai, Nov 04: Amid deadlock over government formation in Maharashtra, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today.

Sharad Pawar, though, has maintained his party will sit opposition, NCP might make a bid to form the government if the BJP and the Sena failed to resolve their issues.

Even after ten days after the results were declared, no party or alliance has staked claim to form government in Maharashtra yet.

There was also speculation that the Shiv Sena may join hands with the NCP and form government with outside support from the Congress.

The speculation got strengthened on Sunday when senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar showed reporters a phone message from Sena MP Sanjay Raut, which just contained a formal introduction of and greetings from the latter.

Many Congress leaders have opined that the party should back the Sena to keep the BJP out of power.

The formal talks over the formation of government are yet to take off between the BJP and the Sena which together won 161 of the total 288 seats. The halfway mark is 145.

The BJP and Shiv Sena, who contested the election together, however, have been bickering over the chief minister's post.

The Shiv Sena wants the post of the chief minister on a rotational basis and implementation of a "50:50 power-sharing" formula, which entails equal allocation of ministerial portfolios.