Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar to take call on common minimum programme for Maharashtra today

MUMBAI: Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP leaders will discuss the draft of the common minimum programme for Maharashtra with their respective party chiefs - Sonia Gandhi, Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar - on Friday.

It may be recalled that the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena had on Thursday finalised a draft on the CMP for a coalition government in Maharashtra after several rounds of hectic parleys over the last two days.

At a joint press conference held by Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, Congress' Prithviraj Chavan and NCP's Jayant Patil on Thursday, they said that a final call in this regard will be taken by the heads of the three parties after a discussion among themselves.

"We all met and discussed the common minimum program. We made our report. We will submit our draft to party President of respective parties. Party presidents may discuss it and take a final call," they said on Thursday. 

Though the details of the CMP have not been made public, reports said that it includes issues like farm loan waiver, unemployment and higher MSPs to the rain-hit farmers of the state. 

Sources also revealed that Sonia Gandhi-led Congress wants Shiv Sena to leave its ''Hindutva'' agenda and make a commitment on secularism.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackrey is slated to visit rural areas and meet farmers who have been badly affected by unseasonal rain in the state. Uddhav will return to Mumbai tonight and hold a meeting with his party leaders over the CMP draft, said sources.

President's Rule was imposed in the state on Thursday after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's report to Centre that no stable government was possible in Maharashtra under the current political scenario.

Union Home Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah, however, said that any party which has the numbers can still approach the governor. 

"Even today if anyone has the numbers they can approach the governor. The governor has not denied the chance to anyone. A learned lawyer like Kapil Sibal is putting forth childish arguments like 'we were denied a chance to form government'."

Shiv Sena and BJP contested the recently-held assembly elections together but failed to reach an agreement for government formation. The Shiv Sena's demand of 50-50 government formula, asking for the chief minister's post of two and half years was not accepted by the BJP.