Amid heightened political activity in Maharashtra following Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's invitation to the BJP to form the government, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has offered to support Shiv Sena if Uddhav Thackeray himself becomes the chief minister, sources on Sunday said. 

The NCP offer is exclusively for Uddhav Thackeray as Maharashtra chief minister. Mr Thackeray is yet to respond to the offer, sources said. 

Since Shiv Sena has 56 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly, way below the half-way mark of 145, it will need both the NCP's 54 and Congress' 44 legislators to reach the magic number. 

It is not yet clear if the NCP has promised support of the alliance or just its own 54 MLAs. 

The governor on Saturday invited the BJP as the single-largest party in the state to form the government even as the deadlock with alliance partner Shiv Sena continues. NCP has said it will vote against the BJP on the floor of the House and will try to form an "alternative government" in the interest of the state.

Earlier on Sunday, Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting of Shiv Sena MLAs and asked them to be patient, assuring that the chief minister will be from their party only. 

Thackeray reportedly said the picture will be clearer in the next few days and only a Shiv Sainik will sit on chief minister's chair. 

The Shiv Sena and the BJP contested the recently-held assembly elections together but have failed to reach an agreement for government formation. 

The Shiv Sena's claim of 50-50 government formula, asking for the chief minister's post of two and half years has not been accepted by the BJP.

The BJP won 105 seats and Shiv Sena grabbed 56, together they have the numbers to form the government but both the parties have not been able to break the impasse on sharing the chief minister's post.

On Friday, with no end in sight to the standoff, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis submitted his resignation to the governor.