R R Patil, who submitted his resignation as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Home portfolio on Monday. As a consequence of this event the Nationalist Congress Party called an emergency meeting of its legislature assembly members on Tuesday to decide his successor.

Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, is also expected to resign on Tuesday afternoon after the President leaves for Delhi. "I had already offered to resign at the CWC meeting. It is now for Sonia Gandhi to take a final call," said Deshmukh on Monday.

Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is likely to succeed Deshmukh while the NCP is planning to appoint two leaders for the deputy chief minister and home minister posts held by Patil. Public works department minister Chhagan Bhujbal is likely to take over the deputy chief minister post , while the state home ministry will go to either finance minister Jayant Patil or water resources minister Ajit Pawar .

The NCP's Praful Patel asserted that his party was not placing any conditions. "All that we want is that the chief minister should be somebody who can carry the alliance partners together," he said.