Addressing block presidents of the Congress here on Tuesday, both the leaders in their speech called upon the Congress workers to react strongly to the derogatory comments made by Singhal against Sonia and his glorification of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse.

"Singhal has lost his mental balance and his outburst is the indication of his mental bankruptcy. What Singhal said in Aurangabad and then in Thane are not inadvertent mistakes but a deliberate calculated conspiracy. His threat to our leader Sonia and the lavishing of praise on Godse is also a cunning strategy to create communal tension in the country," Chavan said.

He assured the party workers that the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led Democratic Front government in the state would do whatever is possible to initiate action against Singhal within the legal framework.

The state Congress chief Thakre said, "We should not allow Singhal or anyone to get away with uttering any nonsense and anything against Sonia Gandhi. It's is meaningless if we keep quiet by just condemning remarks by Singhal. This is not enough. We have to go beyond condemnation."

The state Youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav urged the block presidents file First Information Reports (FIRs) against Singhal in each of the 553 blocks. He reminded the party workers that when the all India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary had spoken something, 50 cases were lodged against him. "It is high time that we took things seriously and file cases against Singhal in all the blocks across the state," Satav added.

In another development, the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, frustrated by the mute response by the people of Pune to the shutdown called by the Sena-BJP on Tuesday to protest the removal of the statue of Dadaji Konddev, tutor of Maratha warrior Shivaji, came down heavily on the NCP leaders.

In a hard hitting editorial in party mouthpiece Saamna published on Wednesday, Thackeray wrote "It was the dirty game played by the NCP which claimed that Dadaji Konddev was not the tutor of Shivaji and removed his statue from the historic Lal Mahal in downtown Pune in midnight."