Maharashtra

Pawar, Jayant Patil and Nawab Malik were part of the meeting.

Earlier, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut exuded confidence that the two parties, along with the Congress, will arrive at a decision on government formation in a day or two.

A s e ni or NCP l e ader on Wednesday said that the government is likely to be formed before the first phase of the Jharkhand assembly polls to be held on November 30.

The Shiv Sena, too, believes it is only days away from leading a three-party coalition government in Maharashtra intends to fly out its lawmakers to Congressruled Rajasthan after their meeting with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, people familiar with the development said.

The party had a day before sent out a message to its MLAS to come for the meeting on Friday with a change of clothes and identity documents such as Aadhaar card.

The Sena leadership is of the opinion that the MLAS should be kept together at a safe location till the new alliance stakes claim to form the government, a Sena functionary said.

The Sena had also debated sending the legislators to neighbouring Goa or Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh but eventually settled for Rajasthan. The Congress party had earlier put up its 44 MLAS at a luxury resort in Jaipur.

“The location is still being finalised. The MLAS will be sent to either Jaipur or Udaipur in Rajasthan till the process here is completed,” a senior Shiv Sena leader confirmed. Senior party MLAS including Eknath Shinde and Thackeray scion Aaditya, who is a legislator from Worli, would stay back in Mumbai.

The state was plunged into a political vacuum after the Sena broke its three-decade-long alliance with the BJP after its partner refused to accede to its demand of sharing the chief minister’s post.

The BJP and Sena, which fought the October 21 assembly polls in an alliance, had secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in