New Delhi: Congress and NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) tonight (Oct 18, 2004) failed to resolve the deadlock over the issue of Maharashtra Chief Ministership but both sides claimed the negotiations were "progressing in the right direction."

Senior Congress leaders, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, had a meeting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar in New Delhi this evening.

Soon after their meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the leaders, who included Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and Ghulam Nabi Azad and senior leader Ahmed Patel, met Pawar to sort out the issue.

Margaret Alva, AICC (All India Congress Committee) general secretary in charge of party affairs in Maharashtra, and NCP leader Praful Patel also attended the meeting.

Emerging from the meeting with Pawar, Praful Patel and Ahmed Patel told reporters however that "the talks were progressing in the right direction."