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Cong.-NCP alliance under strain

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 12. The standoff between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party over Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue appears to have cast a shadow on the working arrangement between the two parties in Maharashtra, with some leaders even talking about a break-up of the alliance.

The Congress MP from Maharashtra, Suresh Kalmadi, today openly demanded that the Congress snap its ties with the NCP and go it alone. Mr. Kalmadi, who is the Treasurer of the Congress Parliamentary Party, charged that Mr. Pawar was in touch with the BJP and that the NCP workers were keen on joining the Congress.

The AICC has taken seriously the NCP chief, Sharad Pawar's statement that the Congress had an "imported" leadership. The party general secretary, Ambika Soni, today said: "Congress workers across the country were agitated over the remarks and the Maharashtra unit chief, ultimatum to the NCP, and statements of other State leaders was a manifestation of this."

The NCP said it saw no reason to revise its stand on Ms. Gandhi's foreign origin, with its general secretary, Tariq Anwar, stating that the Congress was aware of the NCP stand at the time both parties decided to join hands and run a coalition government in Maharashtra.

"The Congress had then not imposed any condition that we should drop or change this stand," Mr. Anwar told The Hindu. He felt that the threat held out by the Maharashtra Congress unit was an election-oriented rhetoric.

Congress-NCP relations turned bitter after the recent electoral reversal in the Solapur Lok Sabha byelection. Party leaders accused the NCP of not putting its weight behind the Congress candidate.

Congress sources said Mr. Pawar raising the "foreign origin" issue in the run-up to the Assembly elections to five States, was important, especially since he maintained all along that it was an issue relevant only for the Lok Sabha polls.

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