Ashok Chavan hints at less NCP portfolios

As the Congress endorsed him for another term as Maharashtra Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan, today (October 26), said he does not expect any problem in the government formation exercise which will begin after rally NCP elects the leader of its legislature party.

In an indication that NCP may lose some portfolios it held in the previous term, Chavan made it clear that government formation would take into account the strength of the Congress and the NCP in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Chava also said there is "no question" of taking the support of Raj Thackeray's MNS.

Meanwhile, opting for status quo, Congress on Saturday (October 24) announced Ashok Chavan and Bhupinder Singh Hodda will lead the party's legislature groups in Maharashtra and Haryana respectively making them the Chief Ministers in the two states where the party stormed back to power.

The decisions to choose Chavan and Hooda to head CLPs was taken by Congress President Sonia Gandhi after she held several rounds of consultations lasting well past midnight with senior party leaders who as central observers interacted with the newly-elected party MLAs in the last two days eliciting their views on the leadership issue.

Emerging from the long-drawn confabulations at 10 Janpath, the official residence of Gandhi, senior party leader A K Antony, one of the observers for Maharashtra, told mediapersons that 51-year-old Ashok Chavan has been chosen by the Congress President to be the CLP leader in Maharashtra.