PUNE, 8 May 2005 — Sadashiv Rao Mandlik, a three- time NCP member of Parliament from Kolhapur and also the deputy leader of the party in the Lower House (Lok Sabha) turned the tables on his party president and federal Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar during a meeting of NCP MPs and office-bearers in New Delhi yesterday, alleging apathy of the UPA government including Sharad Pawar.
Mandlik also took offence at being ticked off by Pawar at the meeting, and offered to resign his lower house seat stating that he came to Delhi at the instance of Pawar and asked Pawar to tell him what was there otherwise to hold the MPs in Delhi.
Pawar was shocked and taken by surprise by the attack of his deputy in the presence of 14 NCP MPs and several office-bearers. According to party sources reached by phone, the heated argument between Pawar and Mandlik was a fallout between the two last Tuesday night at a meeting of all Maharashtra MPsorganized by the Maharashtra government, a regular annual feature. It was at this meeting that Pawar ticked Mandlik off for criticizing the working of the UPA government in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and 45 MPs from the state belonging to all political parties.
An angry Mandlik feeling humiliated by Pawar, told Pawar that things were better for the NCP MPs during the earlier National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and complained that there were negative responses to any request from each and every minister of the UPA government.
When Pawar later told Mandlik that he should have avoided making the remarks against the UPA, particularly when Shiv Sena and BJP MPs were present at the meeting, Mandlik agreed and said that technically it can be correct what Pawar said.
