Alliance almost sealed, here’s who all were inside the Cong-NCP meeting

With  Congress president Sonia Gandhi greenlighting the alliance with Shiv Sena, top Congress and NCP leaders have begun their meeting at Sharad Pawar's residence in New Delhi on Wednesday. According to reports, the NCP and Congress leaders are expected to discuss a range of issues. They are likely to give a final shape to the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of both parties. Further, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut will be meeting Sharad Pawar after the Congress-NCP meet on Wednesday. 

Here are the inside pictures from the meeting:

NCP-Cong-Sena alliance in Maharashtra soon?

According to sources, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday finally gave a nod and agreed to an alliance with Shiv Sena. Soon after the development, NCP's Rajya Sabha MP Majeed Memon spoke to Republic TV and confirmed about the alliance. Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi has refused to comment on the progress being made in the formation of a new government in the state of Maharashtra.

Developments of the political crisis in Maharashtra

Just after the assembly elections, the Mahayuti alliance partners - BJP and Shiv Sena had a fallout over the chief minister's position in Maharashtra. While Shiv Sena had said that the chief minister's position should be equally divided between the parties as per the 50:50 formula, BJP leader and former CM Devendra Fadnavis denied any such agreement. The Mahayuti alliance swept Maharashtra on October 24, winning a combined tally of 161 (BJP- 105, Sena -56), while the NCP won 54 seats and Congress secured 45 seats. After the fallout with BJP, Shiv Sena sought Congress' support to form a government in Maharashtra. While the party failed to do so in the given deadline, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had announced a President's Rule on November 12.