Maharashtra: ‘Will Try To Form Alternate Government With Congress,’ Says NCP Amid Sena-BJP Deadlock

NCP leader Nawab Malik has said that the party has called a meeting of all the elected MLAs on Monday, to discuss the political situation in the state.

New Delhi: Amid the political stalemate in Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress Party said that the NCP-Congress alliance will try to form an alternate government, in case the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party fail to form government. NCP leader Nawab Malik has said that the party has called a meeting of all the elected MLAs on Monday, to discuss the political situation in the state. He said “if BJP-Shiv Sena form the government, we will sit in Opposition. If they don't form government then Congress-NCP will try to form an alternate government.” Earlier in the day, Congress leader Milind Deora said that the second largest alliance, NCP-Congress alliance is ready to form the government in state, since BJP and Shiv Sena could not reach a consensus. “Maharashtra’s Governor should invite NCP-Congress - the second largest alliance - to form the government now that BJP-Shiv Sena have refused to do so,” said Deora in a tweet on Sunday. The statements from Congress and NCP come a day after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asked the BJP, the single largest party in the new Assembly, to "indicate the willingness and ability" to form government, creating hope that the 15-day- long political impasse in the state will end. Meanwhile, Sena leader Sanjay Raut said his party would declare its next strategy once no one else is able to form government in Maharashtra, and asserted that politics was not a trade for his party. Without taking name of any individual or party, he said the bubble of being "invincible" has burst and the arrogance of "buying" a politician to form government will no longer work in the state.