Deshmukh awaits Sonia's nod

New Maharashtra ministers unlikely to take oath today

Although unhindered by a large number of independents unlike his last term when his government was dependent on them, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh stayed in Delhi all of today to finalise the Cabinet expansion list with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, but was unable to clinch it.

When he had left Mumbai, Deshmukh had said the ministry would be expanded on Monday. He had a long meeting with Congress General Secretary Margaret Alva. But negotiations are still on.

Emerging out of the meeting with Alva, he said talks were continuing and he expected that a final shape to the Cabinet would be given after his meeting with Gandhi.

"There is no difficulty in it. We will try to give representation to each and every section, but it is difficult at this juncture to divulge the detail," he said when asked about talks about the formation of a ministry.

Astrological reasons were trotted out for the postponement of the expansion. Deshmukh said in Delhi Monday was not considered auspicious by several MLAs.

Deshmukh indicated that there were many claimants for a Cabinet berth and everyone could obviously not be accommodated.

"We have to resolve all these things," he said. At least one independent""Harshwardhan Patil, MLA from Indapur""is expected to figure in the Cabinet list. But there was no clarity on the others because of claims and counterclaims.

The Congress-NCP list has a large number of Maratha MLAs but as the chief minister and the deputy chief minister are both from the same caste, it is unlikely that Marathas will figure in the Congress share of the ministry. For Deshmukh, it is also imperative to keep opponents like Govindrao Adik and Rohidas Patil at bay.

Besides Deshmukh, state party unit chief Prabha Rau and Mumbai Congress chief Gurudas Kamat also participated in the talks with Alva to decide the ministry.

The Congress can appoint 18 ministers as per the power-sharing agreement with its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party, under which the Sharad Pawar-led party got 24 ministries in lieu of the chief ministership. Under statutory law, the number of ministers cannot exceed 42.

Meanwhile, Pawar is holding a meeting with party MLAs in Mumbai. Pawar had authorised Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil to choose his team after consulting party MLAs.

But, over the weekend, it was clear that Patil was facing the same problems as his colleagues because he answered no questions on Saturday and left Delhi citing ill health.

Although Deshmukh has no pressing legislative challenge facing him that could require diplomacy in appointing ministers""the panchayat and zilla parishad polls are due in two years ""he would like to ensure all regions are represented adequately.

"I have won from Bal Thackeray's constituency. I think they should consider me for ministership," said J Chandurkar, Congress MLA.