MUMBAI: Uddhav Thackeray will have one Deputy Chief Minister from the NCP while the speaker's post will be held by the Congress, senior NCP leader Praful Patel has said even as the details of portfolio allocation are yet to be finalised.
"There will be one Dy CM from NCP whose name will be finalised in the next few hours. At least one or two leaders from all the three parties will take oath as a minister along with Uddhav Thackeray tomorrow," Patel told reporters as he emerged from a 4-hour-long meeting of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders here at the YB Chavan center in South Mumbai on Wednesday.
Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal and Mallikarjun Kharge were among the top leaders present at the meeting today.
"December 3 is the deadline for the trust vote. Before that all the talks regarding power-sharing would be concluded," Patel added.
He, however, didn't confirm the number of portfolios that each constituent of the MVA will get.
Jayant Patil and Ajit Pawar are two top contenders for the Dy CM's post and the party is likely to finalise on one name in further meeting tonight, sources said.
Speaker's post was another contentious issue due to which the talks were protracted, sources said.
As per the strength of Maharashtra Assembly, the number of ministers can’t exceed 43 while there is no set formula for a number of senior and junior ministers.
While different formulae were being speculated regarding the number of ministerial posts that each of the party gets, after the resignation of Fadnavis on Tuesday various names were being speculated as the probable ministers in Uddhav Thackeray’s cabinet.
The Shiv Sena and NCP are likely to get 15 ministerial berths each in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, according to PTI.
Congress is likely to have 13 ministerial berths.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Thackeray, who is also the Sena president, and Congress veteran Ahmed Patel are among the leaders holding parleys over the council of ministers.
State Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat had earlier in the day said that the sharing of portfolios among the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress in the next state government is likely to be finalized in a couple of days.
“The ratio of portfolio-sharing will be finalised in the next two days. The number of Cabinet and Minister of State (MoS) posts to be given to each party will also be finalized in the next two days,” he said after taking oath as MLA at the Vidhan Bhavan.
Allocation of portfolios will take a longer time, he said and also declined to comment of the possibility of him being made Dy CM.