Mumbai, Oct 17 (IANS): President Pratibha Patil will inaugurate the platinum jubilee (1937-2011) celebrations of the Maharashtra legislature here Tuesday, official sources said.

The two-day event (Oct 18-19) will be held at the Vidhan Bhavan in south Mumbai and will see the presence of leaders and legislators from all over the country.

The celebrations were earlier planned July 19-20 but were postponed in view of the July 13 Mumbai terror attack.

The president is herself a former member of the Maharashtra assembly. She entered the house at the age of 27, and later served as a minister and the leader of the opposition.

Governor K. Sankaranarayanan, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, union Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde (all three former chief ministers) will also be present on the occasion.

The second day will see a discussion on coalition governments.

It will be attended by Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council chairman A. Chakrapani, Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narain Choudhari and his Karnataka and Haryana counterparts, K.G. Bopiah and Kuldeep Sharma.

Maharashtra has a bicameral legislature - the 289-member assembly and a 78-member council.

The present legislature building, situated in the heart of the business district of Nariman Point, was inaugurated by prime minister Indira Gandhi April 19, 1981.

The old legislature, barely a kilometer away, now houses the Maharashtra Police headquarters.

Two sessions of the state legislature - budget and monsoon are held in Mumbai, while the winter session is held in Nagpur, the second capital of the state.