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Pawar makes Deshmukh's life miserable

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is under fire from the Congress leadership for not keeping the Nationalist Congress Party in check.

The All-India Congress Committee is furious about NCP president Sharad Pawar's recent remark. The issue has assumed such seriousness that insiders argue that if the NCP chief does not desist from making such statements, the Congress could seriously consider pulling out of the Democratic Front government.

The latest controversy started with AICC general secretary Ahmed Patel's phone call to Deshmukh, in which the former is reported to have asked the chief minister to mobilise funds for the party's election campaign. What the AICC leadership is upset is the manner in which Pawar got wind of this highly confidential talk.

Pawar immediately remarked that the taxing demands of the AICC were a bit too much for the DF alliance.

It came as no surprise to Congressmen, then, that AICC general secretary and Maharashtra state in-charge Motilal Vora gave a tongue lashing to Deshmukh on February 9, when the two met in south Bombay. Vora told Deshmukh in no uncertain terms to keep the NCP in check.

What has agitated the Congress leadership is the fact that most key portfolios like home, energy, cooperation, irrigation and public works are all with the NCP. The Congress leadership argues that the NCP has pocketed all the "good" portfolios.

This is not the first instance that the Congress leadership is in a tizzy. Following the two-day organised violence unleashed by the Ramdas Athavale faction recently, many state leaders had just about stopped short of accusing the NCP and the RPI of trying to pull down the alliance government. They pointed at the manner in which the police played it cool, obviously under instructions from above, during recent disturbances in the city.

Another issue that could land Deshmukh in trouble is his decision to attend a function of the Jana Kalyan Cooperative Bank, a frontal cooperative arm of the RSS. The Jalgaon district Congress president has dashed off an angry letter to the AICC, demanding action against the chief minister.

The Congress leadership is accusing Pawar of trying to keep the DF government on the edge by engineering some crisis or the other every day.

Sources within the Congress argue that some of its leaders like Arjun Singh and former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao are working in close coordination with Pawar and Tamil Manila Congress leader G K Moopanar in a bid to fell Sonia Gandhi. Their plan is to ensure that the Congress gets a huge drubbing in the ensuing assembly election, which would result in a clamour for Sonia Gandhi's resignation.

It may be recalled that Rao was in Bombay on a five-day visit, which he claimed was personal. Indeed, it was made to look like it was -- Rao released the Marathi version of his book The Insider, called on noted writer Durga Bhagwat, and took part in a religious function.

But Congress sources say that Rao is coming out of his political hibernation.

A defeat for the Congress in the Colaba assembly bye-election could well mean the death knell for Deshmukh's chances of staying in power.

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