Maharashtra alliance will be finalised by this evening: Uddhav Thackeray

Maharashtra: Amid Maharastra power tussle, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray told his MLAs that the Maharashtra alliance will be finalised by this evening.

The Shiv Sena chief accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of lying. He blamed Shiv Sena's old ally for the recent breakdown in ties and told the party MLAs that a new alliance would be finalised by this evening.

Since the power-sharing spat with BJP post-election results, the Shiv Sena has been working to form an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party.

Though the Shiv Sena MLAs have been demanding that the Shiv Sena chief take over as the CM of the state, the leader has not made any affirmative statements yet. Speaking of the rising demands, he said that he would take a decision and announce it at the right time.

The Samajwadi Party with 2 MLAs has demanded Muslim reservation. The Samajwadi Party is currently in alliance with the Congress-NCP. The party has also demanded that the Shiv Sena must abandon Hindutva.

The BJP and Shiv Sena had contested together in the elections and won a majority together. However, the parties couldn't come to terms on who is going to be the Chief Minister as there were candidates from both the parties. After their talks didn't work out, both the parties had a fall out following which Shiv Sena leaders Sanjay Raut and Uddhav Thackeray accused the BJP of betrayal. Amid a word-war, the Shiv Sena then approached the NCP to form a coalition government in Maharashtra instead. However, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi kept mum about the developments and stated that he had no comments to make about the Congress party's decision.

The state of Maharashtra has been under the President's Rule since November 12, after a nearly three-week-long political deadlock caused by the rift in ties between the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Sources from the Raj Bhavan say that Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari is likely to skip a conference of governors scheduled to begin on Saturday in Delhi, and remain in Mumbai amid the impending suspense.