NCP will join Govt,talks to be completed in two days: Praful

New Delhi, Nov 3 : NCP leader Praful Patel today played down party colleague Chhagan Bhujbal's statement that the NCP would support the Congress from outside and asserted that his party will join the Government in Maharashtra.

''Everything would be fine and we both will form the government,'' he told reporters here.

The stalemate in talks between the Congress and the NCP continued, as both parties failed to find a way out on portfolio allocation.

''The Congress and the NCP together had fought the elections and they both have a mandate to form the government. Now it is the responsibility of both the parties to work out an arrangement that will last smoothly for the next five years,'' he said.

Mr Patel had to get onto a damage control mode after Mr Bhujbal told reporters in Mumbai that his party would support the Congress from outside till all outstanding issues were resolved. Mr Bhujbal had made the statement after meeting the Governor S C Jamir during the day.

The Governor had called both Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Bhujbal separately to discuss the government formation.

Mr Patel, who has been appointed by NCP supremo Sharad Pawar as the pointsperson to deal with the negotiations, said nothing much should be read into the delay in government formation and pointed out that on earlier occasions too, there has been such delay. "It is a question of dialogue and this does not mean it is end of the road." He also played down the ''differences'' over portfolios and said none of these differences were irreconciable. "In coalition dharma, it was always better to delay and have smooth relations for the next five years." While the NCP has been demanding the allotment of portfolios on the basis of the 1999 formula, the Congress has been seeking more portfolios arguing that they had won 20 more seats than the NCP in the just-concluded state Assembly elections.

The Congress too has been insisting on 18:23 ratio of ministerial berths while the NCP was demanding a 23-20 ratio.

NCP sources, however, blamed the Congress for indulging in pressure tactics from day one.

"Even before the elections, they had spoken of going it alone and even proposed NCP's merger with their party. On seat sharing, they first they would not give us more than 100, but finally yielded 114--which was fine with us as most of NCP's rural seats had vanished on account of delimitation and in some cases due to urbanisation.

And now, they want to demonstrate they are the bigger brother and want to take all creamy portfolios,"said a NCP leader, who did not want to be quoted.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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