Mumbai: After hectic consultations over several hours, the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and Shiv Sena have finalised the draft of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), which will form the basis of their new alliance in Maharashtra.
Sources told ThePrint that the joint CMP is likely to feature issues like a farm loan waiver, review of the crop insurance scheme, unemployment, increasing minimum support prices, and construction of a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue and a memorial to Dr B.R. Ambedkar, among other things.
This CMP will now be sent to all three parties’ presidents — NCP’s Sharad Pawar, Congress’ interim chief Sonia Gandhi and Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray — for a final stamp of approval.
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Ideology issue also discussed
The three-party coordination committee meeting was attended by Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde and Subhash Desai, Congress’ Manikrao Thakre, Prithviraj Chauhan and Vijay Wadettiwar, and NCP leaders Nawab Malik, Jayant Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal.
“The draft is in final stage of completion. We want the government to be formed as soon as possible, as farmers are facing a lot of problems,” said Wadettiwar.
Importantly, Wadettiwar added that the parties also had a discussion about their different ideologies, but haven’t yet discussed a power-sharing formula. But he said the Congress was not in the race for the CM’s chair, leaving that to the NCP and Shiv Sena to figure out.
Earlier, Pawar had directed the NCP to ensure fast-paced discussions. Since the formation of the committees from all three sides Wednesday, discussions have been on to clear the way for government formation. Pawar himself is in the Vidarbha region to take stock of the agrarian distress, and is likely to meet Gandhi around the winter session of Parliament, which begins on 18 November.
Shiv Sena sources have also indicated that top leaders could be headed to Delhi soon to pay Gandhi a visit.
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