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Updated: Nov 10, 2019 00:49 IST

Mumbai: With the BJP and Shiv Sena yet to break the impasse on the government formation in Maharashtra, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) too were involved in internal party meetings on Saturday to work out permutations and combinations to form the next government.

A day earlier, caretaker chief minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had criticised each other over the impasse in the saffron alliance.

The Sena on Saturday attacked the BJP over the pre-poll “agreement” on sharing the CM’s post. “Uddhav Thackeray has expressed his aggravation on the politics of falsehood and the people of the state have heard him...such politics will not be tolerated,” Sena leader Sanjay Raut said. The statement was made hours before Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari invited Fadnavis, who was elected BJP’s legislative leader, to form the government. Senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said, “The decision [to stake claim to form the government] will happen in the core committee meeting Sunday.”

NCP chief Sharad Pawar met senior party colleagues at his residence where he tried to get a sense of what the leaders felt about a plan to be part of a non-BJP government, said a senior NCP leader.

The party may forge an alliance with Sena to form a government with outside support from Congress. If Congress comes on board, the tally of the three parties will reach 154 seats. While BJP and Sena have got 105 and 56 seats, respectively, NCP bagged 54 seats and Congress 44. The halfway mark is 145 seats.

“NCP MLAs may also be asked to stay put in Mumbai,” said an NCP insider on the condition of anonymity, adding, “Poaching is a possibility as BJP doesn’t have the numbers.” Congress has sent its MLAs to Jaipur in Rajasthan, while Sena MLAs were shifted to Hotel The Retreat in Madh.

NCP also has a plan B in place which involves taking most of the small parties and Independents along. “BJP may not be able to cross the tally of 120 MLAs if Sena doesn’t go with them. Our plan is to get 129 MLAs and ask Congress to abstain at the time of vote of confidence,” said an NCP insider.

With Sena chief Thackeray firm on not resuming talks until BJP admits to having gone back on its word over the CM’s post, the option before his party is to join forces with NCP and its ally, Congress, to form a government, which the party is exploring. The hitch, however, for Sena is that the Congress leadership is not keen on extending support to it.

Sena functionaries said re-negotiations with BJP could begin if the party concedes to their demand for a CM for two-and-a-half-years. “He [Uddhav] would prefer BJP. If someone from the BJP central leadership sorts it out, discussions could commence,” the functionary said.

On Saturday, Congress, too, deliberated upon the move to support a Sena-NCP government in a meeting headed by AICC general secretary, Mallikarjun Kharge. On Sunday, state unit president Balasaheb Thorat, former CM Prithviraj Chavan and Kharge will meet party MLAs in Jaipur.