Maha political soap opera goes on; Pawar play yields no result

Multiple high-profile meetings in New Delhi and Mumbai on Monday, including one between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, failed to give any indication of breaking the 11-day- long deadlock over government formation in Maharashtra.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Union home minister Amit Shah, who is also the BJP president, in New Delhi and later said there is need to form a government in the state at the earliest.

However, all eyes were on the Pawar-Gandhi meeting in the national capital amid talks of realignment of political forces and intense speculation over possibility of a non-BJP government, perhaps headed by the Shiv Sena, in Maharashtra.

However, Pawar did not give any sign of his party changing its "we will sit in opposition" stand in Maharashtra, which is waiting for a new government more than a week after announcement of poll results on October 24.

After his meeting with Gandhi, the 78-year-old Maratha strongman, a ..