The final deal between the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena was sealed at 6 Janpath, the residence of Sharad Pawar, which is just 100m from Sonia Gandhi's residence, after several rounds of parleys between the leaders on Wednesday.
The Congress and the NCP held a marathon meeting to discuss the common minimum programme (CMP) to form an alliance government in Maharashtra, saying that no government can be formed without the three parties.
The meeting of the Congress and the NCP leaders that lasted for over three hours at Pawar's residence was attended by senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Jairam Ramesh, Mallikarjun Kharge, K.C. Venugopal, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat.
Addressing the media after the meeting, chief NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, "We are trying to form a government and that's why we held discussions. And it is for sure that a government cannot be formed in the state without the three parties," Malik said.
Chavan, who was also present in the briefing, said, "We had a meeting with the intention of ending the political uncertainty in the state."
The Congress leader said that the grand old party and the NCP have gone into various aspects of formation of an alliance in Maharashtra where President's Rule was imposed in November 12.
When asked if any formula has been made for the government formation with Shiv Sena, Chavan said, "We held discussions on many aspects on a positive manner."
From the NCP, besides Pawar and Malik, the meeting was attended by senior party leaders Supriya Sule and Ajit Pawar, among others.
( With inputs from IANS )