With the date for withdrawals now over, Pawar rivals realise that in controvention of general party norms Mehta has been allowed to remain in fray with other Congress nominees Vasant Chavan, Ranjeet Deshmukh; Shiv Sena's Diwakar Raote, Vijay Vaddettiwar and Kanhaiyalal Gidwani; BJP's N S Pharande, Bhai Girkar, Pratapsinh Mohite Patel, Janata Dal's Gangadhar Patane and Independents Pradeep Pawar and Hemraj Shah for 10 seats of the Council.

Significantly, Mehta's proposers are all Congress legislators including leader of Opposition in the Assembly Madhukar Pichad and the highprofile R R Patil.

Though Congress spokesperson Vasant Chavan and leader of Opposition in the Council Chhagan Bhujbal have justified the candidature of Mehta, Pawar baiters havedemanded his expulsion from the party. Stating a precedent, a senior Congress leader pointed out that when a former Revenue Minister had contested as an Independent nominee, he was immediately expelled from the party without giving him an opportunity to explain his stand.

The other face of the Mehta problem is that the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) has noted that the candidature of Mehta is a clear breach of assurance given by senior Congress leaders. ``It was decided that the PDF will support the Congress sponsored candidate for the Rajya Sabha and in lieu, it will ask the pro-Congress independent legislators to support the PDF nominee for the legislative council elections,'' a senior PDF leader said.

Bhujbal sees the candidature of Mehta in a different light, saying those Independent legislators who are opposed to the Sena-BJP alliance, will now get an opportunity to vote for a secular candidate. ``Our decision is clear. No Congress legislator will vote for Mehta. However, Independent legislatorsor even those who are not happy with the alliance government can certainly vote for Mehta to express strong displeasure over the functioning of the government,'' Bhujbal said.

Besides Independent legislators, disgruntled elements within the BJP and Shiv Sena will play a vital role in both the elections. Dismissed Minister Ganesh Naik and two senior BJP legislator are reportedly in constant touch with Sharad Pawar. A Congress leader has said that the party would not refuse help from disillusioned saffron leaders, even as a BJP leader has firmly ruled out the possibility of such rebellions.

Nepal junket to woo Independents

Congress spokesman Vasant Chavan told The Indian Express that a group of Independent MLAs in the Assembly had complained to party leaders that a high-profile Rajya Sabha candidate was attempting to woo away at least 14 of them with a week-long junket to Nepal, beginning Thursday.

These Independents, some of whom had offered support to the Congress and others to the ShivSena, were being flown by domestic Air India flight to New Delhi tonight from where they would be taken to Nepal to be returned to Mumbai on June 17, a day before the polls, he said.

Suresh Kalmadi meanwhile is believed to have secured the support of at least 60 legislators from all groups including the Independents. Of these at least 25 are believed to have been convinced to cast their first preference vote in his favour and this appears to have worried the Congress as at least six legislators among these voters are said to be from among their official ranks.