Uddhav Thackeray meets Sharad Pawar, Congress yet to take a clear stand

Mumbai, Nov 11: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray met NCP chief and veteran politician Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on Monday, said reports. Sena and the NCP have reportedly decided to bury their differences from the past and join hands to in the interest of Maharashtra. There would be a 'common minimum programme' which will be the basis of Sena-NCP alliance.

Shiv Sena and NCP together have 110 seats which is short of 145 needed to form the government. A non-BJP government is possible only with Congress' support. If Congress decides to support, then the alliance of three parties will have 154 MLAs between them, nine more than the required number for government formation.

After BJP, the single largest party, declined to form the government, the Governor had asked the Sena, second-largest party, to stake a claim. Sena has time till 7.30 pm on Monday to stake claim to form the government.

Shiv Sena, which ended its decades-old alliance with the BJP after a bitter tussle over '50-50' power-sharing, would be staking a claim to form government in Maharashtra this evening.

The Sena chief was accompanied by his son Aaditya Thackeray as he called on Pawar at an undisclosed location, they said. The Congress and NCP are at present holding parleys at their respective party levels on whether to support a Shiv Sena-led government in the state.

The two parties have already declared that whatever the decision, they will take it together.

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari earlier invited the Shiv Sena, which has 56 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, to stake claim to form the government by 7.30 pm on Monday.

Koshyari invited the Shiv Sena after the BJP, the single largest party with 105 seats, decided against staking claim to form government in the state.