New Delhi: NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) today (Oct 16, 2004) gave clear signals of its intention to head the next Government in Maharashtra with its chief Sharad Pawar asserting that the principle of largest party getting the top post should stand as his party emerged the largest party in the Assembly polls.

"The argument given to us by Congress five years back was that the single largest party should get the Chief Minister ship. The principle was also applied recently in Karnataka" Pawar, whose party got 71 seats, four more than Congress, told sources in New Delhi.

He replied in the affirmative when asked whether the principle stands now and indicated the issue would be settled through discussion.

The Congress president, talking separately to reporters earlier, had remained non-committal on the issue saying that the issue would be sorted out after discussions.

Replying to a volley of questions, Pawar, however, ruled out going back to Maharashtra as Chief Minister.

"Once I made a blunder as it was very difficult to say no to Narasimha Rao. Besides I had the emotional involvement following the riots (in 1993)", Pawar said recalling the last time he went to State politics.

Pawar had earlier maintained that he would give the Chief Minister ship to Congress "even if they get one seat more than us."

The NCP chief said, that he has asked the Maharashtra party president to convene a meeting of the State NCP Legislature party on Monday (Oct 18, 2004) at which party leaders Tariq Anwar, D P Tripathi and Praful Patel would be the Central Observers.