Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar to meet on Monday over Maha govt formation

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar will meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi to discuss the government formation with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra on Monday, NCP leader Nawab Malik confirmed.

"Since we fought elections with Congress, we have decided to take any step further after consulting with the Congress. Our leader Sharad Pawar and Congres President Sonia Gandhi will meet tomorrow," NCP leader Nawab Malik told media after the party's core committee meeting here on Sunday.

After the Sharad-Sonia meeting, leaders of Congress and NCP will sit down together on Tuesday to discuss the government formation in the state, he added.

NCP's core committee met at party chief Sharad Pawar's residence here on Sunday. Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil and Legislative Party leader Ajit Pawar were among the prominent leaders present at the meeting.

The core committee, Malik said, has "arrived at a conclusion that President's Rule should end in Maharashtra and an alternate government should be formed at the earliest".

Maharashtra came under President's Rule earlier this week after all the parties failed to form a government in the state.

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 only 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 Governor BS Koshyari.

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

The Shiv Sena is now in parley with the Congress and NCP to form a government in the state.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.