Whoever has majority can form govt in Maharashtra: Sanjay Raut

Virtually challenging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena said here on Monday that "whoever has a majority in the state can form the government."

"We have no hurdles in forming the government. Whoever has the majority can form the government in the state," Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.

He was interacting briefly with the media after paying a courtesy call on Maharashtra Governor B.S. Koshyari at the Raj Bhavan, accompanied by state minister Ramdas Kadam.

The Sena leaders also said that they had discussed the Maharashtra political scenario in the wake of the Assembly poll results and the subsequent logjam in forming the government, with Raut on Sunday claiming the support of 175 legislators.

Raut also presented Koshyari a book by the late Shiv Sena founder-patriarch Bal Thackeray and two books by current party President Uddhav Thackeray.

The meeting assumes significance in the wake of the tug-of-war between the two warring allies -- BJP and Shiv Sena -- over the formation of the government, 10 days after Assembly poll results were declared.

Earlier on Monday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met BJP President and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, and said that a BJP-led government would be formed soon, but declined to comment on their confabulations.

Later on Monday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar are meeting in the national capital to discuss Maharashtra's state political imbroglio and the options to form a new government.

NCP state President Jayant Patil said that a Shiv Sena-led government would assume power in the state and any attempts by the BJP to engineer Sena MLAs would be thwarted by the Opposition parties.