The Hindu Business Line : Vilasrao Deshmukh is new CM, R.R. Patil Dy CM

THE 12-day stalemate over the formation of a Government in Maharashtra ended today with the appointment of the newly elected leader of the Congress Legislative Party in the State, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, as Chief Minister.

His deputy is Mr R.R. Patil, who is the State president of the Nationalist Congress Party. Both men had key posts in the previous Democratic Front Government. Mr Deshmukh was a former Chief Minister but had been replaced by Mr Sushilkumar Shinde, who was also a frontrunner for the post this time.

Mr Patil was previously the Home Minister. After his appointment Mr Patil thanked the party leadership for "selecting the son of an ordinary farmer for such a high position".

All praise for the NCP chief, Mr Sharad Pawar, Mr Patil expressed his thanks to him and the party activists for supporting him. He said one of his priorities would be to "step up industrialisation in the State and address the problem of unemployment."

Both parties held closed-door meetings throughout the day prior to making their separate announcements. While the NCP had clearly stated that its leaders would be casting secret ballots to choose the deputy chief minister, the Congress had said that the choice of chief minister would be made after observers from the Central Committee of the party spoke at length to the 68 Congress MLAs and ascertained their feelings about the chief ministerial candidates.

A great deal of confusion followed the announcement of the chief ministership leading to high levels of conjecture over the actual procedure followed. Some reports say that Mr Shinde himself proposed Mr Deshmukh's name for the top position despite being a contender himself. But a source in the NCP said that the Congress too resorted to a secret ballot. It is believed that Mr Deshmukh had an advantage from the very start with 48 MLAs sending in letters supporting his candidature. The leaders are expected to submit letters to the Governor of Maharashtra informing them of their respective appointment after which he will extend the formal invitation to form the Government. Though stage one of the formation of the government is over, the decision over allocation of portfolios is expected to go through an equal amount of wrangling. The NCP, which argued for and got 24 ministerial appointments, is expected to push for the portfolios of Excise, Forests and Cooperation.

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