Miffed at Congress leaders targeting the energy department headed by him, Ajit on Saturday said that the Congress had the chief minister's post in the state and therefore Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan could well decide if the energy department had to be allotted to someone else.

Ajit said, "Chief minister belongs to the Congress party. Let them take a decision and allot the department to whomever he wishes to allot it to."

With power crisis in Maharashtra deepening due to shortage of coal, Telangana disturbance and floods in the state of Orissa, politicking has begun between the ruling coalition partners. The Maharashtra State Congress Committee has called for Chavan's intervention to tackle the power situation, which Ajit presumed as an affront to him and his Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Lashing out at Ajit, state Congress President Manikrao Thakre said the government should have given information to people about the increase in load-shedding. Thakre further said that while coal due to Maharashtra from the Western Coalfields Ltd. had been diverted to Andhra Pradesh, there were complaints from the state power generation and distribution companies that the state was getting low-grade coal. He also called for a "careful planning" in this respect.

A Congress minister said the energy department headed by Ajit failed in dealing with the crisis. "They should have foreseen the situation. Apart from Telangana and Orissa, coal supply is far low. Power companies are expected to keep a buffer stock to face such a situation," he added.