Cong lowers Pawar heat as it rushes to douse more fires

Sources said one compromise formula with Karunakaran was to include more of his supporters in the state Cabinet. The old warhorse has already given up his ultimatum that the High Command replace chief minister A K Antony by November 19. Though, the date is no longer sacrosanct, Karunakaran can be expected to keep gunning for Antony, just as NCP leaders have made it clear that they will keep flogging Sonia’s foreign origins as an issue.

But the Congress swallowed its pride aware that had the Shinde government gone on this issue, Sonia’s foreign origins would have become a key poll theme in the four states.

That’s perhaps why MPCC chief Ranjit Deshmukh had to climb down from his ultimatum statement. ‘‘I had only said on Saturday that Pawar speaks one thing in Maharashtra and another outside the state. So he should clarify,’’ he said. He added that he never threatened the NCP that the Congress would pull out.

The AICC, too, almost apologised for Deshmukh’s statement saying he was merely ‘‘reflecting the angst of the people in Maharashtra against Pawar’s statement.’’

Quick to acknowledge the olive branch, NCP spokesperson Praful Patel welcomed this calling it ‘‘good for the government and will work well for the coalition.’’

But the truce is temporary at best. Less than 24 hours after the ‘‘ultimatum,’’ the NCP fielded all its leaders to reiterate their stand on Sonia’s foreign origins—Praful Patel, Tariq Anwar, Chhagan Bhujbal and Sharad Pawar himself. And today, even as Patel was expressing satisfaction, P A Sangma was reiterating the NCP’s stand that the party would continue to flog the issue.

Congress leaders are apprehensive of Pawar’s ambitions: trying to position his party as a parallel pole to attract disillusioned Congress leaders. He’s putting up candidates in all states though he has stakes only in Chhatisgarh where V C Shukla joined the NCP. The party’s success here will whether leaders in the Congress who have been sulking join hands with the NCP.

The AICC, however, today chose to ignore Pawar’s comments on the issue of Sonia’s foreign origin and only reacted on his charges of closeness between BJP and the Congress calling them ‘‘erroneous and misleading.’’

Opting not to address Pawar’s comment on foreign origin issue, AICC spokersperson Anand Sharma said, ‘‘The understanding with the NCP is only in Maharashtra to keep communal forces from forming government in the state.’’

Asked why the party was backtracking even when Pawar remained belligerent, Sharma said: ‘‘We don’t wish to vacate the political space in the state for communal forces to walk in. It is now up to the NCP to decide.’’

‘‘While we have responded to the portions of Pawar’s speech that we found relevant, we have said this in the language and style befitting a national party,’’ Sharma stressed, hinting at the lack of propriety in Pawar’s statements.