MUMBAI: It was Congress vs Congress over government formation in Maharashtra as the grand old party's two senior leaders contradicted each other with Milind Deora expecting Governor's invite for second largest NCP-Congress alliance while Sanjay Nirupam saying it was impossible.
The reactions came a day after Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari invited Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the single largest party with 105 MLAs after the recent Assembly elections in the state, and its legislature party leader Devendra Fadnavis to "indicate willingness" and "ability" to form government.
Expressing his opinion on Twitter, Deora said: "Maharashtra's Governor should invite NCP-Congress, the second largest alliance to form government now that the BJP-Shiv Sena have refused to do so."
Contradicting his statement Nirupam tweeted, "it was impossible for Congress-NCP to form any government in Maharashtra in the current political arithmetic. For that, we need Shiv Sena. And we must not think of sharing power with Shiv Sena under any circumstances. That will be a disastrous move for the party."
Both the Congress and the NCP are wary of poaching from the BJP. Congress has moved its MLAs to a resort in Jaipur in Rajasthan, a Congress-ruled state, while NCP has called its meet on November 12.
Sources said that various Congress MLAs have asserted that the party should consider extending support to the Sena, during a meeting held on Sunday in Jaipur in the presence of senior party leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge, the party in-charge of Maharashtra. Kharge was rushed to Jaipur by the Congress leadership to make sense of the MLAs.