Dive told The Indian Express that he would not attend the convention but as mayor of Nashik, courtesy demanded that he welcome national leaders irrespective of their political affiliations.

He says he will neither visit the convention site at the Maratha Vidya Prasarak Samaj's college on Gangapur Road, nor attend Sonia's public meeting at the Golf Club grounds. However, he is adamant about presenting the lady with a bouquet on her arrival in the city on May 6.

However, the BJP's city President Vijay Sane, who is also leader of the Opposition in the Nashik Municipal Corporation, says as mayor of the Sena-BJP, Dive has no business to even welcome Congress leadersinto Nashik.

His gesture is being seen as an overture towards the rival Congress with saffron corporators reminding him that it was the saffron alliance which installed him as mayor despite his RPI background.

They also say that when the NMC was ruled by the Congress between 1992 and 1996, Congress mayors did not have the courtesy to welcome senior BJP leaders like LK Advani, AB Vajpayee or Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who had visited the district on several occasions.

But the undercurrents run deeper. State Health Minister Dr Daulatrao Aher is president of the Maratha Vidya Prasarak Samaj, the biggest educational institution in rural Maharashtra and the venue of the Congress convention. Aher had wrested power in the samaj by forging an alliance with local Congress leaders like former Niphad MLA Malojirao Mogal though he was elected to the State Assembly on a BJP ticket in 1995.

While being installed as the samaj president, Aher had also trounced the panel led by former Congress MP Dr Vasant Pawar,who is also his brother-in-law.

Moreover, BJP corporator Suhas Pharande (nephew of NS Pharande, vice-chairperson in the State Legislative Council) had taken Dive to the convention's venue to oversee preparations last week, setting the cat among the saffron pigeons.