Sena, Congress on tenterhooks over electing party leaders in state

More than a fortnight has passed since the results of the Assembly elections were announced and both Shiv Sena and Congress remain on edge uncertain what roles they will play in the government in the days to come The outcome of the prolonged discussions between the BJP and Shiv Sena remains uncertain giving rise to a peculiar dilemmaWhile the Shiv Sena has already placed the responsibility of nominating the partyrsquos leader on Uddhav Thackerayrsquos shoulders it is rumoured that the Congress will authorise Sonia Gandhi right to pick their leader File picsPower playAs per norms each political party nominates a leader to lead its group of newly elected legislators in the Assembly The leader of the party with the highest numbers takes charge as Chief Minister while the leader of the party with the second highest numbers assumes charge as the leader of the oppositionShiv Sena with 63 members is currently busy thrashing out a formula to participate in the BJPled government Depending on its success or failure the partyrsquos leader could either rise to the post of deputy CM or be leader of the opposition Unable to anticipate which is more likely to happen the Sena has so far refrained from picking a leaderThe party placed the responsibility of the decision on Sena chief Uddhav Thackerayrsquos shoulders during a meeting of the Sena legislators It is possible that the party is mulling over different names for the nominated leader depending on what role he or she will have to playCongresss dilemmaHow does this affect the Congress The party has 42 MLAs but hasnrsquot elected its leader either as it is waiting to see how the BJPSena talks turn out Sources said ldquoIf Sena joins the BJP in the government the Congress leader would become leader of opposition and enjoy all the power and privileges that come along with it office government residence important role in legislative businessrdquoIf Sena opts to lead the opposition the Congress nominee will just be the leader of the Congress faction without any special status And just like Shiv Sena Congress too has two different names in mind for the leader depending on the fallout of the talks between the saffron parties the sources addedCongress partyrsquos MLAs will meet on Thursday when according to a few party leaders could generate some noise about the poll debacle with former CM Prithviraj Chavan as the targetThere is also a possibility that the party will authorise Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to nominate the party leader in MaharashtraRane lashes outSenior Congress leader and former Shiv Sainik Narayan Rane was quite vocal as he addressed media at Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday taking potshots at his party leadership saying such decisions on the leadership issue are taken in DelhiWithout naming exCM Chavan Rane seemed to blame him for the Congress whitewash in the elections ldquoWe had accepted defeat much before the pollsrdquo he said Admitting that adequate campaign money had not reached the candidates he further said that it was normally the CMrsquos responsibility pointing the finger at Chavan yet againHe also took potshots at Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena He said that the nowdeceased Sena supremo Bal Thackeray taught the party to live with selfrespect and had he been alive he would have preferred to sit in the opposition rather than put up with the BJPrsquos tantrums ldquoSena has become desperate for powerrdquo added RaneMeanwhile sources said that neither CM Devendra Fadnavis nor Uddhav Thackeray were directly involved in the alliance talks After waiting for 16 days Thackeray took his party legislators to Ekvira Devi temple near Lonavla yesterday when he was reported to have said that the next time he would return with 180 MLAs