It8217;s a conspiracy, says Sonia team

Instead they might have used the opportunity to settle scores with various sections of the party leadership, he suggested. Among the six MLAs so identified, three were said to have been allotted to the quota of Najma Heptullah and three to Pradhan.

The team, however, refused to divulge the details of theirreport which will be handed over to Sonia in New Delhi and discussed at the Congress Working Committee meeting tomorrow. There was a suggestion, though, that the erring members might be immediately expelled from the party for six years. The party will also punish others, who were part of the larger conspiracy.

Reddy and his colleagues Rajesh Pilot and A K Anthony today met around 20 legislators, bringing the total number to around 65. The Congress has 78 MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly. Some of the remaining dozen could not make it to Mumbai for various reasons. They were said to have conversed with the team over the telephone before it left for New Delhi this evening.

It was, however, the day of the 8220;loyalists8221; today at Gandhi Bhavan, the State Congress headquarters, where mostly anti-Sharad Pawar Congressmen had a one-to-one palaver with the team. Among these were Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sudhakarrao Naik, Ashok Chavan son of former Home Minister S B Chavan, Sushil Kumar Shinde and others.

Expectedly,the loyalist version led to a slight shift in perception with Pilot stating that the committee will also look into whether the Congress should have propped up independent candidate Vijay Darda against another independent Suresh Kalmadi both being ex-Congressmen or let well alone.

However, the committee turned down the demand of a section of leaders to strip Pawar of his post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok sabha for the resultant fiasco. 8220;There is no question of that,8221; Reddy categorically stated.

Meanwhile, Naik and Deshmukh are believed to have handed a small list of suspects to the team. These and other names were bounced off various legislators who, however, refused to confirm or deny the suspicions on the grounds that a word from them might ruin the careers and entire life of their colleagues.

Some MLAs, however, pleaded with the team to ensure that the phenomenon of 8220;independents8221; in the legislature is not a recurring possibility in the future. The large number of independents in thecurrent Maharashtra Assembly, who number 45 in a House of 288, are mostly Congress rebels who were denied tickets by the party high command in 1995.

Belonging mostly to 8220;loyalist8221; camps, they were urged upon by leaders inimical to Pawar to prop up the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra in order to deny the latter a continuing Chief Ministership.

However, in the last three years, these independents who have got to describing themselves as the 8220;Akhil Bharatiya Apaksh Paksh8221; have tasted blood money leading them and even legitimate MLAs of all political parties to believe that it is more profitable to be an independent than affiliated to any particular political party.

In the process, even party MLAs have begun to seek money in return for their votes at Rajya Sabha and Council elections.