Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan will be arriving in New Delhi on Wednesday evening to meet the top congress leadership to discuss the cabinet formation.

Earlier in the day, senior leaders of Congress and NCP, including Chavan, met at NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence in Mumbai, amid indications that hard negotiations are on between the ruling alliance partners over the number of ministerial berths.

While Congress is firm on continuation of the old formula with them getting 23 seats and NCP 20, deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is insisting on a 22-21 formula, where the Congress would get 22 seats and NCP 21 seats.

Those present at the meeting include NCP Maharashtra chief Madhukar Pichad, MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre and MRCC chief Kripashankar Singh.

Ajit Pawar is aggressively seeking an extra ministerial berth for his party, a demand the Chief Minister has ruled out.

He has maintained that the seat-sharing arrangement was decided at a meeting between the two parties and there is no need to discuss it again.

After the meeting, Chavan said Congress ministers will be sworn in on Thursday.