Pawar wins Round I

Till recently,Congress leaders were gloating about forcing Nationalist Congress Party NCP chief Sharad Pawar to eat humble pie in seat-sharing negotiations between the two alliance partners for the Maharashtra Assembly elections: the NCP had agreed to contest 114 seats in the 288-member Assembly,eight less than what it had contested in 2004. But the Congress leadership soon realised that they had been outwitted by the Maratha strongman. The NCP was actually contesting all 288 seats, said a Congress leader,explaining how the NCP had conveniently fielded its own rebels,Congress rebels,or extended tacit support to Third Front candidates in the constituencies which had been given to the Congress as per the seat-sharing arrangement. Thats not all: Pawar had even supported rebels against the NCPs official candidates in constituencies where there was a strong anti-incumbency wave.