PUNE, January 5: Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar today set a deadline for the corporators who had joined the Pune Vikas Aghadi floated by Suresh Kalmadi, to return back to the party fold by Friday, asserting that he would personally monitor the election campaign to ensure that the party retained the Pune Lok Sabha seat.Pawar, who held parleys with party workers during a hectic schedule today, placed an action plan to pave way for re-entry of those who had left the party. Two groups, he said, have been set up to persuade the corporators who have deserted the party into changing their decision. These groups launched their mission as soon as Pawar left for Delhi this evening. After his arrival in Pune Sunday evening, Pawar was involved in confidence building exercise throughout the day during a series of meetings he held with the Congressmen, which included city Congress president Mohan Joshi, Rambhau Mozhe, MLA, Vasant Chavan. MLC, Prakash Dhere, Sharad Ranpise, Balasaheb Shivarkar, Anant Gadgil, Vastad Riaz and Rashid Khan. During the day, Pawar also armed himself with the wardwise statistical data while discussing in details the factors which had swayed voters in past elections. He assured the party leaders that he would monitor the entire election campaign till the fag end on weekly basis.In a significant move, Pawar also had a separate meeting with former Congress MLA Vasant Thorat and Uttamrao Patil, both said to be leading the strong Maratha lobby.Himself upset with the desertion of one time close associate Suresh Kalmadi, Pawar later told reporters that the development had left a feeling of betrayal in the city Congress. He was, however, confident that the party workers were now determined to fight back and ensure that the party comfortably sailed through in the polls. Earlier, addressing a party meeting at Congress Bhavan, Pawar warned the party workers against rumours and disinformation which he alleged had already been launched by Kalmadi supporters. He made fervent appeal to caling upon the workers to gear themselves up to fight this battle against "betrayal."Pawar reminded the city Congress about the special relationship between the party and Pune mentioning that the historical decision to set up Congress was decided in Pune in 1885 but the first Congress convention had to be shifted in wake of the plague outburst to Mumbai. He reiterated that Pune had never tolerated fundamentalist forces and the past elections had proved that it had always voted for issues and the ideology.
