New Delhi: Reluctance of Congress to give two posts of Deputy Chief Ministers to NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) reportedly demanded by it in lieu of Chief Ministership prolonged the deadlock over new Government formation in Maharashtra.

Though the NCP leader Praful Patel dismissed as "baseless" reports that his party was demanding two Deputy Chief Ministerships to give up its claim on the top post, sources in his party as also the Congress admitted that the issue has become the bone of contention between the two sides.

Patel told reporters that senior leaders of the NCP would be having a meeting tomorrow (Oct 27, 2004) with party chief Sharad Pawar to take a decision in the matter. Such a meeting was scheduled today (Oct 26, 2004), but was deferred apparently due to failure of any response from the Congress.

"We are still not agreeing to an additional Deputy Chief Ministership for the NCP," a senior Congress leader involved in the talks with the Sharad Pawar-led party said tonight.

There was optimism in the Congress circles early in the day that the 10-day old deadlock would be resolved by tonight and senior leaders Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmed Patel made statements to that effect after a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

NCP sources said that senior Congress leaders had a meeting with Pawar on Sunday night and had assured him that they would report back within a day on the proposals discussed to resolve the deadlock, but had not done so till now.