By IANS,
Mumbai: The Congress party’s newly elected legislators will meet here Saturday afternoon to decide on who will lead the party-led alliance government in Maharashtra, India’s most industrialised state, for the next five years.
The meeting of the Congress Legislature Party would be attended by three central observers – Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rehman.
They are expected to meet the party’s newly-elected 81 legislators individually or in groups to ascertain their choice for the leadership of the Democratic Front (DF) government of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which will assume office soon.
The NCP, led by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, had long back made it clear that it would not stake any claim to chief ministership. In the last polls too, the NCP had surrendered the chief ministership to the Congress though it had more legislators than the Congress.
By current indications, incumbent Ashok Chavan is considered the front-runner for the chief minister’s chair. But there is stiff competition from another senior leader, former Shiv Sena leader and chief minister Narayan Rane.
Even late last year when Chavan replaced Vilasrao Deshmukh, Rane had raised a banner of revolt but eventually remained in the party.
Later, Chavan managed to mollify him and even inducted him into the cabinet, giving him the plum revenue portfolio. It remains to be seen how Chavan would deal with the likely Rane challenge to his leadership bid now.
Another ambitious person eyeing the post was Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. He has apparently opted out of the race after a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the capital Friday morning.
Chavan got the unexpected backing of former chief minister and Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.
Chavan’s prospects had been boosted much before the elections. At a public rally in Nanded early this month, Gandhi had indicated that if the party returned to power Chavan would continue as the state chief minister as his performance was good.
According to party sources, in return for Shinde’s support, Chavan may induct Praniti Shinde, Shinde’s daughter who has been elected from Solapur, as a junior minister.
The sources said that Chavan has already created a lot of goodwill in the party by overseeing two crucial elections during his short tenure as the chief minister.
First, it was the May 2009 Lok Sabha polls followed by the October 2009 assembly elections. In both, the Congress not only performed handsomely but improved it tally vis-�-vis its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
In 2009 Lok Sabha, the Congress bagged 18 seats, compared to the 13 it held in the previous Lok Sabha. Its ally NCP bagged seven in May 2009 compared to nine it held in the previous 2004 Lok Sabha.
Their total comes to 25 in the 48-members of Lok Sabha from Maharashtra and the alliance also bagged all the six seats in Mumbai.
In the new assembly, the DF bagged a total 144 seats of which the Congress bagged 81 seats and the NCP secured 63 seats in the 288-member house.
In the outgoing house (2004), the NCP held 71 seats against the Congress’s 69 – the alliance total coming to 140.