Mumbai: Jayant Patil visits Sharad Pawar before NCP chief's meet with party MLAs

Leader of NCP Legislative Party Jayant Patil met party chief Sharad Pawar at his residence here on Monday. Post this the NCP supremo left for Hyatt hotel to meet his party MLAs.

On Sunday evening, all NCP MLAs were moved to hotel Hyatt in Mumbai, citing security concerns.Patil along with Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan and others visited Raj Bhawan here on Monday and said that they have given a letter showing the strength of 162 MLAs to the Governor.

Patil further stated that the three political parties are hoping that the Governor will accept and respect the mandate and ensure NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena form the government in Maharashtra.

"We have seven independent MLAs with us apart from our original numbers of 56, 44 and 51," Patil added.

While deliberations among Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on the formation of a non-BJP government in the state had seemingly reached a final stage, the BJP formed the government in a surprise development on Saturday morning when Fadnavis took oath for the second time as the Maharashtra Chief Minister, while Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly in last month's assembly polls followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44. Although BJP and Shiv Sena got the mandate to form the government, the two parties parted ways over power-sharing.