Sonia speaks to Sharad Pawar, sends top leaders to Mumbai

New Delhi, Nov 12: A day after Maharashtra Governor B.S. Koshyari invited the NCP to form the government in the state, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday spoke to NCP chief Sharad Pawar to discuss plans to form the government and sent three senior party leaders to Mumbai to hold discussions with him.

Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal took to Twitter saying: "Congress President Sonia Gandhi spoke to Sharad Pawar today morning and deputed Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge and myself for holding further discussions with Pawar."

He further said that the three leaders were going to Mumbai to meet Pawar at the earliest. On Monday evening, Sonia even after holding two crucial meetings with senior party leaders kept the Shiv Sena guessing over the Congress supporting it in Maharashtra to form the government.

The Congress issued a statement in the evening saying it will hold "further discussion" with its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which was all inclined to support the Shiv Sena in the state.

In the statement issued after the meeting chaired by Sonia, the party said: "The Congress Working Committee met on Monday and had a detailed discussion on the situation in Maharashtra after which a consultation was held with Maharashtra Congress leaders. The Congress President (Sonia Gandhi) has spoken to Sharad Pawar. The party will have further discussion with the NCP."

On Monday, Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray also spoke to Sonia seeking her support to form the government. On Sunday, the Governor invited Shiv Sena to form government in the state after the BJP said that it was unable to form the government. The Governor then on Monday evening called on the NCP as the third largest party in the state to attempt government formation.