MUMBAI, July 21: The Navale-Gawande episode - which rocked both the Houses of the State Legislature for the second day today - appears poised to plunge the Manohar Joshi Government into a deep crisis.While Joshi maintained a brave face, ruling out any threat to his Government, Cabinet members and senior leaders of the Sena as well as the BJP expressed fears that the days of the alliance government were now numbered. The prevailing opinion is that the Government has failed miserably in containing the damage caused by Sena leaders Suresh Navale and Gulabrao Gawande's claims that they were threatened with dire consequences by goons.``We feel that Joshi did not handle the Navale-Gawande episode efficiently. In fact, the haste with which he dismissed Navale, who has been with the party for a long time, will only affect us adversely. After all, now he is free to join hands with Ganesh Naik,'' a senior Shiv Sena minister said.The Congress may take full advantage of the crisis in the alliance to come back topower, feel BJP and Sena members. ``Now there is no need for the Congress to engineer a split either in the Shiv Sena or the BJP. It can easily topple the Government by moving a no-confidence motion in the ongoing monsoon session of the State Legislature,'' a senior BJP minister said.Elaborating, the minister said that all the disgruntled Sena legislators - led by dismissed forest minister Ganesh Naik, Navale, Gawande and former agriculture minister Shashikant Sutar - could now join hands and easily muster the support of 15 to 20 legislators.In addition, they might get the support of at least six BJP legislators. ``With the help of these 26 legislators and a section of independents, the Congress can certainly topple the Government,'' the minister speculated.Besides, the results of the Rajya Sabha elections clearly showed that at least 14 legislators of the Shiv Sena and six of the BJP had indulged in cross-voting. ``The same number of legislators can now help the Congress destabilise the alliancegovernment,'' the minister said.Incidentally, Navale had asserted that he had no hand in the cross-voting during the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, adding that even then he had been accused of defying the party whip. Joshi, while speaking to mediapersons, also made it clear today that the stern action against Navale had nothing to do with the large scale cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections.Navale's allegations have also added fuel to the ongoing Maratha vs non-Maratha row in the Shiv Sena. In his letter to the Chief Minister, Navale complained that he was humiliated on several occasions only because of his caste (he belongs to the Maratha community).
