No end to Maha impasse as numbers don’t add up

There is a need to form the government in Maharashtra at the earliest... I am confident that the govt will be formed DEVENDRA FADNAVIS, Maharashtra chief minister

The numbers are not with us and the mandate for us is to sit in Opposition, but can’t say what will happen in future SHARAD PAWAR, Nationalist Congress Party chief

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The stage for political parleys to form the next Maharashtra government shifted to Delhi on Monday with high-profile meetings by government and opposition leaders, but neither side appeared close to a majority with an end-of-theweek deadline looming.

Incumbent chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met Union home minister Amit Shah, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar held discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, roughly 10 days after the assembly election results threw up a hung House.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 105 seats followed by the Shiv Sena at 56, the NCP 54 and the Congress 44. The majority mark is 145. Independents and smaller parties won 29 seats.

Since then, pre-poll allies BJP and Shiv Sena have squabbled over a demand of rotating the chief minister’s position and 50:50 allocation of portfolios. The Sena has also sent feelers to the Congress and NCP, but the opposition parties have not officially responded.

Fadnavis met Shah for 40 minutes and also had a closed-door interaction with party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, who is also the election in-charge for the western state. “There is a need to form the government in Maharashtra at the earliest... I am sure, I am confident that the government will be formed,” Fadnavis told reporters.

Later in the day, Pawar briefed Gandhi about the ground situation in Maharashtra, with