"Pawar ji tussi great ho", says Congress leader Singhvi after ally NCP joins hands with BJP

Congress which suffered a major blow after its ally NCP aligned with the BJP to form the government in Maharashtra on Saturday asserted that the "tripartite negotiations" which included Shiv Sena should not have been stretched for so long.

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi taking to twitter said that he is still not sure about NCP joining hands with BJP.

"Surreal what I read about #Maharashtra. Thought it was fake news. Candidly & personally speaking, our tripartite negotiations should not have gone on for more than 3 days...took too long. Window given was grabbed by fast movers. #pawarji tussi grt ho! Amazing if true, still not sure," Singhvi tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Devendra Fadnavis took as Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term said, while NCP's Ajit Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra

BJP, with 105 seats forged alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party which bagged 54 seats to garner the majority figure.

Ajit Pawar after being sworn-in as Deputy Chief Minister said that the NCP chose to go with the BJP in Maharashtra to resolve problems faced by the farmers in the state.

"After results, no government was formed. There are many problems including that of farmers and if a government is formed then these issues would be resolved at the earliest. That's why we have decided to form the government and taken this decision," Pawar told ANI after taking oath.

The move came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena seemingly reached the final stage on Friday. Earlier, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had claimed that there was a consensus on Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister of the alliance government.

Shiv Sena bagged 56 seats while Congress won 44 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.

The BJP, which emerged as the single largest party, could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on rotating the Chief Minister's post and equal sharing of Cabinet berths.

Shiv Sena parted its ways with BJP to explore ways to form a government. It, however, failed to prove the support of the required number of MLAs in the time given by state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

The Governor had then invited NCP, the third-largest party, to prove its ability to form the government failing which President's Rule was imposed in the state.