Mumbai, October 22
Simmering resentment against Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar within the Nationalist Congress Party threatens to spill over following the severe drubbing received at the hands of a combined Opposition during the just-concluded Khadakwasla Assembly by-elections.

The loss of the NCP candidate Harshada Wanjale in party strongman Sharad Pawar's pocket borough of Baramati has come in handy for the detractors of Ajit to flex their muscles.

Chief among them is former Deputy Chief Minister and a political heavyweight from the Other Backward Caste community, Chhagan Bhujbal who never hides his discomfiture with the NCP's Maratha-dominated leadership. It is no secret that Bhujbal, who holds the tourism portfolio in the government, does not get along with Ajit Pawar but has been persuaded by the latter's uncle and Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar to stay put.

So it did not come as a surprise when Shivajirao Nalavade, a close aide of Bhujbal, announced his exit from the NCP. Nalavade joined Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Thursday, thereby signalling a possible exodus of other malcontents from the NCP.

Bhujbal himself has refused to condemn his former aide and chose to stay incommunicado citing health grounds even as Nalavade attacked Ajit Pawar and accused him of stifling all dissent within the party.

According to NCP sources, Nalavade enjoys tremendous clout within the NCP by virtue of his control over the Mumbai District Co-operative Bank with assets exceeding Rs 4,000 crores.

Political observers say, Nalavade's exit could be a precursor to Bhujbal himself turning the heat on the NCP leadership. For the past few years Bhujbal has been toying with the idea of setting up an OBC front in Maharashtra in association with Gopinath Munde of the BJP.

Both leaders even addressed joint public meetings two years ago before they were pacified by their respective parties.

So it would not surprise anyone if Bhujbal unfurls the flag of rebellion in the NCP.

However, say observers, the exit of even a few high-profile Maratha leaders would land a body blow to the NCP. Sharad Pawar has so far sought to position the NCP as the sole champion of the Maratha community with rather mixed results. The younger Pawar's opponents belonging to the Maratha community are trickling back to the Congress party in Maharashtra despite Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's non-combative approach to politics thereby causing much heart-burn between the two outfits.

With the Khadakwasla defeat, pressure is mounting on the senior Pawar to cut his ambitious nephew down to size. Sharad Pawar's daughter Surpriya Sule, who is also a contender for the strongman's mantle along with Ajit, immediately called for senior party leaders to introspect about the cause of the election defeat. Some of Ajit's detractors in the NCP are now said to be moving towards Sule.

Close associates of Sharad Pawar who broke away from the Congress party along with him in 1999 are now hoping that the Maratha strongman step in and set the party's house in order ahead of the local body elections early next year.