He suggested that the Finance Ministry headed by Pawar was not implementing quickly enough the state Home Ministry’s proposals for the modernization of weapons to tackle terrorists.

A senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister told Arab News that Patil’s remarks are being viewed seriously especially as the Finance Ministry is headed by Pawar.

“Patil’s statement against Ajit Pawar is akin to challenging the leadership of the deputy chief minister,” the minister said.

Visibly upset by the war of words between the two senior NCP ministers, NCP supremo and federal Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar summoned his nephew Ajit and Patil to Delhi on Saturday.

“I can understand that Patil might have had issues with senior NCP minister Jayant Patil or previous Finance Minister Sunil Tatkare, but with Ajit handling the Finance Minsitry now, Patil’s remarks have polarized his detractors who are also eager to please Ajit,” Pawar is said to have told senior NCP leaders in Delhi present during the meeting with the two disputing ministers.

According to NCP sources, though Patil was Pawar’s protégé, the recent events might result in some action being taken against the home minister who could be shunted out of the Home Ministry to another insignificant ministry.

Pawar also told the two warring ministers that the NCP was not in a mood to take on the “big brother” Congress and that they should take it easy when attacked by the party.

Both Ajit and Patil also conveyed to Pawar the furor among NCP leaders over Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s remarks that the home and finance ministries should have been controlled by the Congress.

However, Chavan later clarified that what he actually meant by his statement was that when the Congress-NCP wrested power from the Sena-BJP in 1999 it should not have continued the predecessor government’s formula of power sharing. Chavan had also praised Patil’s good work as state home minister.