Maharashtra Polls: Congress irked as NCP brokers CM-by rotation plan

MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party, perhaps emboldened by Shiv Sena's hard bargaining, has sprung a big surprise on Tuesday: the party has now demanded that if their alliance — NCP & Congress — comes to power, then the CM's post should be rotated between the two parties, with each getting a chance to helm the state for two and a half years each.

The Congress, which has been stumped and amused in equal measure at the proposal, rejected it outright. "There's no question of accepting it... they are still insisting on 144 seats, and now they have come up with this. It looks as if they aren't serious about their alliance," said a Congress sevak. Other Congress sevaks feel NCP has sprung this demand to have more bargaining power in their negotiations with the Congress.

The Congress party, which wasn't willing to give more than 124 seats to NCP, is now ready to give it between 128 and 130 seats. But the NCP is demanding upwards of 135 seats, which has led to a rift between the partners. Congress sevaks's claimed that in an effort to send out a strong message to the NCP leadership, its President Sonia Gandhi has not granted an appointment to NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

This apparently comes in the wake of local Congress sevaks complaining to the party high command that Pawar always has his way during elections once he meets the Congress chief. With Pawar not getting Sonia's appointment, the Congress is sending a message to him to deal with either AK Anthony or Ahmed Patel. A senior NCP sevak, however, refuted the claim that Pawar sought an appointment with Gandhi. MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party, perhaps emboldened by Shiv Sena's hard bargaining, has sprung a big surprise on Tuesday: the party has now demanded that if their alliance — NCP & Congress — comes to power, then the CM's post should be rotated between the two parties, with each getting a chance to helm the state for two and a half years each.

The Congress, which has been stumped and amused in equal measure at the proposal, rejected it outright. "There's no question of accepting it... they are still insisting on 144 seats, and now they have come up with this. It looks as if they aren't serious about their alliance," said a Congress sevak. Other Congress sevaks feel NCP has sprung this demand to have more bargaining power in their negotiations with the Congress.

The Congress party, which wasn't willing to give more than 124 seats to NCP, is now ready to give it between 128 and 130 seats. But the NCP is demanding upwards of 135 seats, which has led to a rift between the partners. Congress sevaks's claimed that in an effort to send out a strong message to the NCP leadership, its President Sonia Gandhi has not granted an appointment to NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

This apparently comes in the wake of local Congress sevaks complaining to the party high command that Pawar always has his way during elections once he meets the Congress chief. With Pawar not getting Sonia's appointment, the Congress is sending a message to him to deal with either AK Anthony or Ahmed Patel. A senior NCP sevak, however, refuted the claim that Pawar sought an appointment with Gandhi.

"We have demanded 144 seats as well as the CM's post in rotation. They rejected both, so we asked them to give us a counter proposal, which they haven't as yet."