NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Monday said governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has called and invited him.

The news has come at a time government formation in Maharashtra has ended up as long tale of political twists and turns two weeks after the declaration of state Assembly poll results.

The BJP, which tried to form a government in the beginning with Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister, had to back-track in the absence of support from its long-time ally, the Shiv Sena.

Today, for a long time it steadily looked like the NCP, Sena and the congress would form a government, but the Congress has made the Sena wait as it consults its leaders and ally NCP.

Ajit Pawar, the NCP's legislature party leader, said he was not aware why the governor had called him. 'At 8:30 pm (on Monday), we got a call from the governor. He has invited me as the legislature party leader. I do not know why he has invited me,' he told reporters in Mumbai.

'We will be meeting governor Koshyari,' said Pawar, who was accompanied by Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil and senior party leader Chhagan Bhujbal.

'We will hold discussion with the Congress based on the letter the governor will give us.... We will then take a final decision (on steps to be taken) tomorrow,' NCP leader Nawab Malik said.

The Sena, which withdrew its central minister from the BJP government in Delhi earlier in the day, suffered a setback of sorts in the evening when the Congress announced it wanted more time to hold talks with the NCP on supporting the Uddhav Thackeray-led party. To add to it's troubles, the governor refused to give the Sena 48 hours more to cobble together an alliance.

With 54 MLAs, the NCP is the third largest party after the BJP with 105 and the Shiv Sena with 56. The Congress has 44 seats in the 288-member House and the halfway mark is 145.