NEW DELHI, June 23: The Congress today issued show-cause notices to Praful Patel, Lok Sabha member and a close confidant of Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar, and Satish Chaturvedi (MLA) for ``openly working' for a non-Congress candidate, resulting in the defeat of Congress official nominee RD Pradhan.The decision to issue show-cause notices returnable on June 30 to Patel and Chaturvedi was taken at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting here, which went through the interim report of the fact-finding team headed by Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy.
The team would again visit Mumbai to complete its inquiry into the causes for Pradhan's defeat.
Congress circles believe that Patel would never act on his own and that he had Pawar's tacit backing.
Arjun Singh, who briefed the press, went to the extent of hinting that even Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal, both currently in London, could be in trouble if the probe team's report so felt.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
