Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena Hold First Joint Meeting, Discuss 'Common Minimum Programme'

Leaders of the Congress, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) held a joint meeting on Thursday to discuss a ‘common minimum programme’ before entering into an alliance with the Uddhav Thackeray-led party to form a government formation in Maharashtra. A draft of the common minimum programme (CMP) will have to be approved by top leaders of the three parties before being finalised, a senior Congress leader told PTI.

“Leaders of the allies Congress-NCP and the Shiv Sena held several parleys to work out a consensus on a common agenda of governance which will be called the CMP,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut tweeted that they would neither get defeated nor afraid. "Ab haarna aur darna manaa hai..," the Raut Tweeted. The Rajya Sabha member’s remark comes a day after he was discharged from the city-based Lilavati Hospital, where he underwent an angioplasty procedure on Monday.

The 57-year-old firebrand Sena leader also tweeted a motivational Hindi couplet, saying, "Haar ho jaati hai jab maan liya jaata hai, jeet tab hoti hai jab thaan liya jaata hai" (defeat happens when one accepts it, victory happens when one is determined).

After the Assembly poll results in Maharashtra were declared on October 24, Raut led the Sena's charge to seek equal share in power with the BJP, leading to falling apart of the nearly three-decade-old saffron alliance.

Earlier, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said talks for government formation in the state were at a ‘preliminary’ stage and no decision was taken so far. The Congress and NCP on Wednesday deliberated at their respective party levels and later jointly to work out a CMP and power-sharing formula, the former state chief minister said.

“The Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena have so far held preliminary talks. A meeting will again be held today between the Congress and NCP, and later both the parties are expected to hold talks with the Shiv Sena. There is no decision as yet,” Chavan told PTI.

President’s rule was imposed in the state on Tuesday after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari sent a report to the Centre, stating that formation of a stable government was impossible in the current situation despite all his efforts.

The BJP and Shiv Sena, which fought the October 21 state elections in alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in the 288-member Assembly.

But the BJP did not cede the Sena’s demand of sharing the chief minister’s post, leading to falling apart of the nearly three-decade-old alliance. The Congress and NCP won 44 and 54 seats, respectively, in the last month’s polls.

With PTI Inputs