MUMBAI: The deadlock between the Congress and the NCP over the sharing of ministries is delaying the government formation in Maharashtra.
Congress Legislature Party leader Ashok Chavan could not take oath as the Chief Minister on Wednesday, the day of his birthday, due to the deadlock.
NCP state spokesman Prakash Binsale told Express on Wednesday that the ball was in the Congress court “as we have stated our position’’. “Though all top state leaders of the Congress and the NCP were in Mumbai on Wednesday, no talks were held. Let the Congress first respond,’’ he said.
The Congress is demanding back from the NCP the plum portfolios of Home, Finance, Power and the Rural Development on the basis of its good performance in the elections.
On Tuesday, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar made it clear that they would not part with important portfolios like Home and they would not settle down anything less than the 1999 power-sharing arrangement.
They warned that in case the Congress was not ready to honour the 1999 agreement, the NCP would not join the Cabinet and give outside support to a Congress Government.
But the Congress considers it as nothing like a blackmailing and is in no mood to entertain the tall claims of the NCP.