A discordant note has again been struck in the Congress-NCP alliance in Pune district which has 21 assembly seats, exposing the superficial nature of the patch-up between city Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi and minister Ajit Pawar of NCP who publicly buried the hatchet through a dinner diplomacy over the week-end.
Kalmadi and Pawar, long time political rivals, engaged in establishing their domination in the district who never lost an opportunity to spit venom against each other, had given a message to all the party workers that "all was well" and they should leave no stone unturned to support and canvass for the respective candidates finalised in the seat-sharing.
But now, NCP Pune unit president Jaidev Gaikwad and Anil Bhosale, the party leader in the civic body, have publicly accused Congress of not participating in canvassing in the constituencies allotted to NCP candidates.
Both Gaikwad and Bhosale, in a statement alleged that while NCP workers were sincerely taking part in the campaigning of all Congress candidates in the district, there has been no reciprocal gesture on part of Congress which was against the spirit of joint campaigning of the alliance.
The NCP leaders also issued a veiled warning to Congress saying if this non-cooperation continued in the district, NCP would have to seriously reconsider its support to Congress
candidates.
With the latest posture by NCP leaders, cracks in the alliance have once again surfaced notwithstanding the week-end honeymooning between Kalmadi and Pawar in the media glare.
