Congress-NCP meet to discuss Common Minimum Programme in Mumbai; Sena says still in talks

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Nov 13 (ANI): Amidst the political stalemate in Maharashtra, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders met to discuss the Common Minimum Programme of the two parties on Wednesday.
During the meeting that is still underway Jayant Patil, Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde and Nawab Malik from the NCP and Balasaheb Thorat, Prithviraj Chavan, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan, Manikrao Thakre and Vijay Wadettiwar from the Congress are participating.
Earlier in the day, NCP leader Ajit Pawar had said that the meeting had been called off, and party MLA Jitendra Awhad said that it was done by Pawar to keep the meeting confidential.
"Some things are kept confidential. So, Ajit Pawar said that NCP-Congress meeting got cancelled. The meeting is underway and Ajit Pawar is present in the meeting," Awhad told reporters here.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said his party is still in talks with Congress and the NCP.
"Rumours being floated that Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had meeting with Ahmed Patel and we have come to some sort of settlement, on behalf of Uddhav Thackeray. Let me clarify that this is untrue & being deliberately spread, our talks with Congress and NCP are in process," Raut took to Twitter to post.
Maharashtra came under President's Rule after the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP indicated they were not willing to form a government.
The NCP and Congress too had said they were not in an urgency to form government in the wake of the imposition of President's Rule and said they will sort out all issues among themselves and their allies before talking to Shiv Sena.
Congress and NCP had fought the assembly polls together. BJP had emerged as the single-largest party with 105 seats and Shiv Sena had finished second with 56 seats in the 288-member assembly. (ANI)