Nov. 6: The Congress won the battle but appears to have lost the wrestling bout over ministries in Maharashtra.

The party has apparently failed to secure key portfolios despite getting 23 ministries against partner NCP’s 20 under a power-sharing deal announced today.

In 2004, when the Congress had won only two seats more than the NCP, the Maharashtra ally had kept 24 portfolios against the Congress’s 19.

This time, the Congress bagged 20 more seats and managed to get four ministries more than last time, but it appears to have given up claims to plum portfolios such as home, energy, finance, water resources and public works — all held by the NCP last time.

In return, the NCP has sacrificed public health, labour, forests and environment — which it had gained in 2004 in return for letting the Congress take the chief minister’s post. But the departments the NCP has bagged this time account for 65 per cent of the budgetary allocation.

Chief minister Ashok Chavan announced the 23-20 formula this morning, a day after governor S.C. Jamir asked both sides to respect the people’s mandate without “further delay”. But no announcement was made till late tonight about portfolio distribution.

This evening, Chavan met Jamir along with deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal and staked claim to form the government.

So why did the Congress blink?

One reason is NCP boss Sharad Pawar’s superior negotiating skills. Pawar has always succeeded in getting the better of the Congress: he got 114 seats, his original demand, despite his poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress had pegged its initial offer at less than 100 seats. Then, the Congress believed the seat difference will be 40, but the gap turned out to be only 20.

In ministry formation, the Congress initially played hardball, starting with a 25-18 formula. But today, it appeared that the party hadn’t even got the prized rural development portfolio.

Some in the Congress pointed to the disunity in the Maharashtra unit. Sources said the first mistake was committed before the election when some leaders started publicly talking about plum portfolios. This, the sources believe, was a ploy by the likes of Vilasrao Deshmukh, Narayan Rane and Patangrao Kadam to create obstacles for the alliance. They knew Pawar would never accept such preconditions, and were only trying to position themselves against chief minister Chavan. The aim was to give Congress chief Sonia Gandhi the impression that only a stronger leader could deal with Pawar.

But the ploy did not succeed as A.K. Antony, who is in charge of Maharashtra, is a known Pawar associate and did not toe the line pushed by combative central leaders like Digvijay Singh.

Now some Congress leaders admit the failure to keep key departments will create a crisis of authority for Chavan.