Top leaders of the ruling Congress-NCP combine in Maharashtra are engaged in a full-blown verbal slug-fest, amid the campaigning for local bodies polls this month.
Irked over NCP wooing his former associate Shankar Kambli, senior Congress minister in Maharashtra, Narayan Rane, launched a scathing attack on Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar of NCP yesterday.
Kambli's entry came close on the heels of induction of another Congress leader and former legislator, Pushpasen Sawant, into NCP.
Kambli, who left Shiv Sena along with Rane in 2005, had followed Rane into Congress.
Speaking at a public meeting in Kudal, Rane said Ajit Pawar and home minister R R Patil criticised him during the cabinet meetings.
"I am not bothered about Ajit Pawar's threats," Rane said, calling him "a faulty tape recorder".
Ajit Pawar responded on Wednesday, saying Rane had lost his "balance". "I don't give importance to his rambling. He has lost his balance," he said.
Speaking to reporters in Latur, R R Patil also lambasted Rane, saying the Congress minister was "frustrated" due to the public support for NCP on his hometurf, the coastal Konkan.
“He cited crime figures in Sangli and Pune (Pawar is from Pune while Patil is from Sangli district). I want to point out that at least in Sangli, there is no minister accused of murder," Patil said.
