Two days after Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi and NCP leader Ajit Pawar met to bury differences and present a united face of the alliance,local units of both parties on Sunday began sparring again. City NCP chief Jaidev Gaikwad and executive president Anil Bhosale on Sunday alleged that Congress workers were deliberately keeping out of campaign of NCP candidates. After reviewing the campaign,we have come to the conclusion that NCP rank and file was working hard for Congress candidates in their respective constituencies,but Congress was not reciprocating, they said. If Congress workers continue to stay away from the election campaign of NCP candidates,the NCP will have to do a serious rethink on their participation in the election campaign of the Congress candidates, Gaikwad said. However,city Congress chief Abhay Chhajed said the allegations were without basis. In reality,he said,the Congress follows the alliance rule and has been campaigning for the NCP candidates by forgetting the experiences,including the recent elections. The allegations are completely wrong and objectionable, Chhajed said,adding it was for the NCP to carry out self-evaluation of the purposeful non-cooperation of the party workers in the election campaign. Both the NCP and Congress are contesting four seats each in the seat. The NCP has put its candidates in Wadgaon Sheri,Kothrud,Khadakwasla and Parvati while the Congress has its candidates in Hadapsar,Pune Cantonment,Kasba Peth and Shivajinagar. Sparks have begun flying just two days after Pawar and Kalmadi had,over lunch at Kalmadis house,decided to end differences and work together for the victory of the Congress-NCP alliance in the Assembly polls. Pawar along with his wife Sunetra had lunch at residence of Kalmadi on Friday. The two leaders had been at loggerheads for long and publicly taking on each other. After the civic polls in 2007,the NCP had even forged alliance with the Shiv Sena and BJP in the PMC to keep the Congress out of power.
