More than a week after the Assembly election results were declared, just two persons — Ashok Chavan and Chhagan Bhujbal — will take oath tomorrow as chief minister and deputy chief minister, respectively, putting in a place a government in Maharashtra, but a truncated one.
“The chief minister and the deputy chief minister will take oath tomorrow,” highly-placed Congress sources said, adding that the Cabinet formation would take place at a later date.
There has been little progress on the negotiations for portfolios, with the Congress seeking the three most important ones — Home, Finance and Power.
However, its partner, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), refuses to budge from its claim on all three posts, in return for the chief ministership to the Congress. The Congress, which has won 20 seats more than the NCP, has been demanding a lion’s share in the government.