BJP govt in Maharashtra by weekend?

A Bharatiya Janata Party-led government will be in place in Maharashtra before athe end of the week, a top party functionary told rediff.com on Tuesday.

He also expressed the possibility of the BJP going ahead to form a minority government in the state as it had emerged as the single largest party in the election with 122 elected MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.

The halfway mark for simple majority stands at 145 in Maharashtra's lower house.

"For sure, the government will be formed by this weekend and it will be headed by a BJP CM," said this senior leader, who is in the thick of goings on in the BJP, privately.

Efforts are being made to get Shiv Sena on board by this weekend, he said, adding that if things do not go as per plan then the BJP will go ahead with the government formation.

He refused to comment if the two parties, once natural allies, were in negotiations over the issue of portfolios to be distributed if the Sena joins the efforts to put a government in place.

But he emphasised that there would be no truck with the Nationalist Congress Party for forming a stable govt in the state.

"If that were so, we would have done that by now. We wouldn't have waited so long," he added.

Sharad Pawar's NCP had, soon after the elections threw up a fractured mandate, in a deft move to checkmate Shiv Sena extended unconditional outside support to the BJP.

If the BJP goes ahead with a minority government or gets the Sena to join the bandwagon on commonly-accepted terms, this could botch the Maratha strongman's efforts to shield his party from becoming irrelevant in Maharashtra politics.