Uddhav Thackeray’s Midnight Visit To Sharad Pawar Over Maharashtra Tie-Up

1. “The final agenda will be sorted out tomorrow (Friday). Our logic to go with the Sena was to end the misrule of the Devendra Fadnavis government. We can’t let Maharashtra suffer,” Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told NDTV.
2. Late on Thursday evening, as Sharad Pawar returned from Delhi, Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya Thackeray went to meet the Nationalist Congress chief. Sena leader Sanjay Raut and NCP’s Ajit Pawar were also present at the meeting, sources said.
3. NDTV has learnt that the common agenda of the new alliance will stress on farmers and jobs and the Shiv Sena’s subsidised food plan.
4. The three parties have decided “in principle” to get together but two sticking points remain. The Shiv Sena is not in favour of rotational chief ministership, as the NCP wants. And the Sena, a pro-Hindutva party, is not amenable to including the term “secular” in the common minimum agenda, which the Congress wants.
5. The Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut said letters of support from the MLAs of all three parties will be handed over to the Governor on Saturday. “On Saturday, a letter signed by the MLAs of the three parties will be handed over to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari,” he said. Sources in the Sena and NCP say “if all goes well, a swearing in ceremony will take place on Sunday or Monday.”
6. On Thursday morning, as the Congress Working Committee met at Sonia Gandhi’s home, leaders asked the party chief to consider the “changed circumstances” in Maharashtra after the Shiv Sena ended its alliance with the BJP and requested the Congress and NCP’s support. The greater enemy in the fight against communalism is the BJP, the Congress chief was told.
7. The Sena has been desperately waiting for the NCP and Congress to make up their mind after ending its alliance with the BJP, a partner for over three decades, over a power tussle. The Sena insisted on rotational chief ministership and an equal share in ministries, which the BJP rejected.
8. After sitting on the Shiv Sena’s request for support for more than a week, the Congress met with the NCP on Wednesday, hours after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar fueled intense speculation. PM Modi’s praise for NCP in parliament had also raised eyebrows in the Congress.
9. The 45-minute PM-Pawar meeting delivered a pointed message to the Congress to quit stalling. Reports that the BJP is pursuing Mr Pawar’s support – the NCP is only two seats behind the Shiv Sena and can help the BJP cross the majority mark in Maharashtra —  and that the President’s post for the veteran is also on the table may have also galvanised the Congress.
10. Maharashtra was placed under President’s Rule last week after no party could produce letters of support to prove their majority.

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