Tension grips Cong-NCP ties

MUMBAI: The simmering tension between the Congress and NCP surfaced at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting when NCP ministers objected to state Congress spokesperson Hussain Dalwai's allegation that the Sharad Pawar-led outfit had engineered riots in Sangli before the assembly elections last year.

Mr Dalwai recently charged the NCP with orchestrating the riots to win a few seats and harm the Congress. But what provided the immediate provocation for the NCP ministers to raise the issue was Mr Dalwai's statement on Tuesday that the Congress was ready to accept NCP if the latter was ready to merge.

Mr Dalwai was reacting to NCP functionary Ratnakar Mahajan's suggestion to party president Sharad Pawar that the NCP merge with the Congress.

Sources said the NCP was angry that Mr Dalwai was not only overstepping his brief but also making charges against NCP in a matter which is still under police investigation. NCP ministers raised objection to the statement and asked chief minister Ashok Chavan if he and the Congress party endorsed what Mr Dalwai had said about the Sangli riots.

Mr Chavan, a source said, distanced himself from the statement and told the NCP ministers that Mr Dalwai had aired his personal views.

Soon after the meeting began, NCP ministers sought clarifications from the chief minister even before the official agenda for the meeting could be taken up. “According to Mr Chavan what Dalwai said was not the official stand of Congress,” an NCP minister told ET.

It was only after Mr Chavan pacified angry NCP ministers that the routine proceedings of the Cabinet meeting began, sources said.

Mr Dalwai had said in Ratnagiri recently that as there was no ideological growth in the NCP and it resorted to engineering communal riots to win a few more seats and also damage the Congress electorally.

Police have arrested NCP leader Moinuddin Bagwan, mayor Sangli, an important town in western Maharashtra, in connection with the riots but he was released on bail.

On Tuesday, Mr Dalwai jumped on the Congress-NCP merger bandwagon and said Mr Pawar’s party was welcome to merge with the Congress. State NCP president Madhukar Pichad and home minister R R Patil had reacted sharply to this, asking the Congress to rein in Mr Dalwai.

In fact, Mr Pichad said he had spoken to MPCC president Manikrao Thakre who had promised to take action against Mr Dalwai for his remarks.