MUMBAI: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar will take the final call on the common minimum programme (CMP) with Shiv Sena on Sunday.
According to Zee Media sources, Shiv Sena has conceded to Congress-NCP's demand for adopting a soft Hindutva approach in the draft CMP. The Shiv Sena has claimed that two major demands in Hindutva-- Ram temple in Ayodhya and abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir-- have been met while maintaining that it will never let go of Hindutva approach completely.
Uniform Civil Code, illegal Bangladeshi migrants, implementation of National Citizens Register (NRC), a grand memorial for Balasaheb Thackeray will remain major agendas for Shiv Sena in the new coalition. With this, the issue of staunch Hindutva, which was the basis of Shiv Sena's political ideology has been excluded from the CMP.
Though the details of the CMP have not been made public yet, sources said that it includes issues like farm loan waiver, unemployment, higher MSPs to the rain-hit farmers of the state, rotational chief ministership, secularism reservation in jobs for local Marathis, employment opportunities for the youth,
among others.
Shiv Sena, which accords high importance to the issues troubling the state's farmers, has also pressed for a complete farm loan waiver and rebate in electricity dues.
The Shiv Sena has pressed to take a strict stand against people coming to the state from outside. Issues like the Uniform Civil Code are yet to be discussed between the chiefs of the three parties.
The three parties are also likely to allocate portfolios as ''16+ 14+12'' formula when the NCP-Shiv Sena and Congress coalition government comes to power.
As per the agreement between the three parties, NCP is likely to get the home ministry, Shiv Sena is expected to keep finance and urban development ministries, while Congress is most likely to be given the Assembly Speaker's post. The deputy speaker's post is expected to be given to NCP.
The three parties had on Thursday finalised a draft on the CMP for a coalition government in Maharashtra after several rounds of hectic parleys over the last two days.
President's Rule was imposed in the state on Thursday after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's report to Centre that no stable government was possible in Maharashtra under the current political scenario.
Shiv Sena and BJP contested the recently-held assembly elections together but failed to reach an agreement for government formation. The Shiv Sena's demand of 50-50 government formula, asking for the chief minister's post of two and half years was not accepted by the BJP.
