Leaders go into a huddle amid power tussle

NEWDELHI/MUMBAI: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met BJP’S president and Union home minister Amit Shah in the national capital on Monday in an effort to come up with a workable formula to end the impasse in Maharashtra amid the ongoing power tussle with the Shiv Sena.

The BJP-SHIV Sena combine won state elections 11 days ago but the two alliance partners have not been able to decide on forming the government after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena insisted that one of its leaders also get a chance to sit in the chief minister’s chair for half of the government’s five-year term.

Sena and BJP, who have been allies for the past 30 years and contested last month’s state election as a coalition, have been sparring since assembly election results were announced on October 24.

While the BJP and Sena fought the elections together and secured 105 seats and 56 seats respectively, they have had trouble coming to an agreement about portfolios and sharing the chief minister’s post by rotation. The NCP bagged 54 seats and the Congress 44. The majority mark in the legislative assembly is 145.

Monday’s noon meeting between Fadnavis and Amit Shah comes hours before Nationalist

Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar was set to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss political developments in the state.

Emerging from Amit Shah’s North Block office in New Delhi, Fadnavis suggested that his Delhi visit was all about getting relief from the Centre for farmers impacted due to the unseasonal rains in his state. Pressed for a response on the delay in govern