Mumbai / Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP Letter of support will be given to Governor on Saturday: Sanjay Raut

MUMBAI: An alliance of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress may form government in Maharashtra on the weekend, sources said today as a series of meetings took place in Delhi. The Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut said letters of support from the MLAs of all three parties will be handed over to the Governor on Saturday. A joint meeting of the Sena, NCP and the Congress will take place in Mumbai to finalise the alliance. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and NCP's Sharad Pawar are likely to join the meeting for discussions on power sharing.

"If all goes well, a swearing in ceremony will take place on Sunday or Monday," sources said.

This morning, Congress president Sonia Gandhi met with the party's top decision-making body and was reportedly advised to go ahead with the alliance with the Shiv Sena despite her reservations.

Sonia Gandhi was asked to consider the changed circumstances in Maharashtra after the Shiv Sena ended its alliance with the BJP and requested the Congress and NCP's support. The greater enemy, in order to fight communalism, is the BJP, the Congress chief was told.

"I think tomorrow we will probably have a decision in Mumbai," said Congress leader KC Venugopal after the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

Yesterday, the party said it is in talks to form a "stable government soon" in Maharashtra but indicated that kinks remain in a possible Sena-NCP-Congress alliance.