Chavan Faces Crisis as Pawar Resigns, NCP Ministers Offer To Quit

However, the Congress, which two months ago sought to present a White Paper on the state irrigation scenario, was silent on the developments.

Chavan merely said that he would take a final decision after consulting all concerned.On the other hand, an aggressive Pichhad said the NCP chief would take a final call on all the resignations, after a crucial party meeting Wednesday afternoon.

The developments are seen as a move by Ajit Pawar to checkmate both the Congress and the opposition which has been gunning for him and other NCP ministers with accusations of corruption.

At another level, it is also seen as a strategy by party chief Sharad Pawar to ease out some NCP ministers who are under a cloud, like Chhagan Bhujbal, Sunil Tatkare and Gulabrao Devkar.

Ajit Pawar's resignation, followed by all NCP ministers', would offer the party chief a free hand to appoint people with a clean record and probably reward some of his favourites like Home Minister R.R. Patil with additional responsibilities.

The developments came barely two months after a week-long stand-off between the Congress and NCP in the central government when both Pawar and Patel stayed away from crucial cabinet meetings chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The issue was, however, resolved after a co-ordination committee mechanism was created at both the central and the state level.

In Maharashtra, the NCP is apparently irked by Chavan's attempt to question the decisions and performance of party ministers, unlike his predecessors.

Known for his brusque style of functioning, Ajit Pawar, who once admitted that he was "a ruffian in politics", had shot into limelight in November 2010 when he staged a coup to dislodge Bhujbal from the deputy chief minister's post.

He grabbed the opportunity when the Congress was compelled to replace the scam-tainted Ashok Chavan with Prithviraj Chavan. Ajit Pawar proved his worth when he catapulted the NCP to the top spot in the local bodies elections earlier this year and also cobbled up strong alliances to bag power in 10 important municipalities in the state.