PUNE, July 1: Congress boss Suresh Kalmadi has sought Chief Minister Manohar Joshi's intervention in the ongoing dispute between the Municipal Commissioner Ramanath Jha and the ruling party at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

``I have communicated to Joshi the grievances of the partymen against the commissioner,'' Kalmadi said to newspersons here on Monday and added that he had also held talks with Congress leader Sharad Pawar in this regard.

Kalmadi clarified that he had no personal grudge against Jha and would seek the opinion of all the party members before arriving at any conclusion.

``The line of action will be decided within the next two days, after I hold talks with the corporators,'' he said refusing to elaborate. He added, ``I am concerned with only the development of Pune city.''

Sources in the Congress, however, said that the party will now be training its guns to seek the ouster of Jha through a transfer instead of moving an impeachment motion.

The Kalmadi faction maintains that, if needed, they will be able to garner support to push through the impeachment motion.

To justify their claim, they said that barring one or two members, including Nitin Jagtap, no other Congress corporator would dare to challenge the motion if it was backed by an order from Kalmadi.

Also, a group of Republican Party of India (RPI) corporators is likely to support the motion, they claimed. The ruling party will need the support of 78 members if it wishes to push through the proposal. The Kalmadi faction pooh-poohed the claims made by Jagtap that 16 Congress corporators would vote against the motion, particularly since the voting will not be conducted through a secret ballot.

Jagtap on the other hand said that some members of the Kalmadi faction too had pledged their support to Jha. He also pointed out that Jha is considered very close to the Chief Minister Manohar Joshi.

Much depends on the stand adopted by the chief minister and the feedback Kalmadi gets from the party corporators within the next two days.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.