The Congress on Wednesday said a stable government would be formed soon in Maharashtra, NDTV reported. The comment was made after a meeting with Nationalist Congress Party leaders at their leader Sharad Pawar’s home in Delhi. Hours earlier, Pawar held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament about an agrarian crisis in Maharashtra.

“Congress-NCP has had long and positive discussions today,” ANI quoted Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan as saying. “Discussions will continue; I am sure we will be able to give a stable government to Maharashtra very soon.”

Among the politicians who attended the meeting were Nationalist Congress Party leaders Chhagan Bhujbal, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule and Nawab Malik, and Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Ahmed Patel, Jairam Ramesh and Balasaheb Thorat, Hindustan Times reported.

The two parties have been negotiating the terms for stitching up an alliance with the Shiv Sena, which fell out with the Bharatiya Janata Party over a power-sharing agreement. The Sena had demanded the post of chief minister for two-and-a-half years, and half the Cabinet berths.

The BJP had emerged as the single-largest party with 105 seats following the declaration of results on October 24. The Sena came second with 56 constituencies, followed by the NCP, which secured 54 seats. The Congress won 44 constituencies. However, none of them could form the government within the stipulated time, leading the Centre to impose President’s Rule on November 12.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said “all the obstacles” had been cleared in the path of an alliance between the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress. “All obstacles that were raised in the last 10-15 days have been cleared,” the Sena leader told NDTV. “By tomorrow you will know that all obstacles have been cleared.” The Sena MP said he had urged Pawar to inform the prime minister about the condition of farmers in the state.

Raut said speculations about the BJP pursuing the NCP for an alliance were theories being propagated by those who do not want the Shiv Sena to come to power. “In the Sena, the decision-making is faster as it comes from the top to bottom, in NCP, the chief sounds out the party on taking a certain decision democratically and takes a little longer,” he said. “The Congress has its own century-plus old traditions of arriving at any decision.”