The first head to roll is that of Maharashtra PCC president Ranjit Deshmukh who has handed over his resignation from the post to All India Congress Committee general secretary incharge of the state, Madhavrao Scindia. Deshmukh, a loyalist of Congress Working Committee member Sharad Pawar, was ordered to step down following the Sonia-Pawar meeting two days ago.

Apparently, the meeting ended with Pawar agreeing that some people must be held responsible for the fiasco. Deshmukh was also told to submit the list of 10 party MLAs who proposed and seconded the nomination of Independent candidate Arun Mehta for the Legislative Council elections.

The party high command today suspended an MLA and issued show cause notice to 10 others, who weresuspected to have worked against the party nominees.Party spokesman Ajit Jogi said Deshmukh, who resigned on June 30, has been asked to continue till alternative arrangements were made.

Satish Chaturvedi, a Pawar loyalist MLA, who was issued a show a cause notice on the issue of cross-voting against Pradhan, was today suspended from the primary membership of the party for his failure to submit an explanation on the charges against him.

He was given a notice along with Praful Patel, MP, who met Sonia Gandhi and also submitted his written reply rejecting allegations against him.

Jogi said show cause notices have also been issued to 10 other MLAs who had signed the nomination papers of Arun Mehta, an independent candidate in the state Legislative Council elections.

He said as Mehta was not an authorised party candidate, these MLAs have been asked to show cause as to why discplinary action should not be initiated against them for signing the nomination papers of mehta.

They have been given a week's timeto reply to the notice.

The MLAs are Morat Rao Kawate, Dilip Patil, Shankar Rao Jagtap, Saheb Rao Paradkar, R R Patil, Kishan Rao Jadhav, Sanjay Devtale, Ashok Dhatrak, Baba Saheb Upekar and Kushal Bopche, Jogi said.

The Congress high command is said to have taken the Mehta case seriously as it was an ``open and shut'' case of indiscipline. Mehta was once a minister when Pawar was the Maharashtra Chief Minister. He is believed to be close to Pawar and when he quit the Congress a few weeks before the June 3 Legislative Council poll, many were surprised in the party.

Soon enough, Mehta's candidature was proposed and seconded by Congress MLAs and he went on to win the poll.

And there is more trouble in store for the Pawar camp. Praful Patel, a Pawar confidant who was issued a showcause notice for Pradhan's defeat, has now been told to appear before the inquiry committee of Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, A K Antony and Rajesh Pilot. Patel was sent a letter by Scindia saying he must appear before thecommitte for his ``views'' on the controversy.

Patel had said he was not consulted by the committee before being issued the showcause notice. It is in reaction this that he has been summoned by the probe team. That Scindia chose to overlook Patel's reply to the showcause and summon him indicates the anger of the Sonia camp which is currently in a fiery mood.

Not an inch is being granted to the Pawar camp after giving out initial signals that peace was the primary objective. The Sonia camp is keen to ensure that Congress workers see 10, Janpath as in ``total command". This is the first time that Sonia is taking such a tough line on party discipline after first retaining all AICC general secretaries in their posts and not acting against CWC members not exactly friendly to 10, Janpath.

Once news of the tough Sonia line filtered through, the Pawar camp went into a huddle. Pawar met Sonia for a brief while in the party Parliamentary Affairs Committee meeting this morning. The committee met in the afternoontoo but by then Pawar was on his way out of Delhi.

Pawar is understood to have flown to Pune for the wedding of his niece tomorrow, after which he is slated to arrive in Delhi on Sunday evening.

Likewise, Praful Patel too left for his constituency Bhandara in the evening. He is likely to return here on Monday and appear before the inquiry committee soon, the panel is awaiting the arrival of A.K. Antony, the third member.

And once the list of 10 MLAs reaches the probe team, action might follow against them too. At one level, this is a victory for the anti-Pawar camp within the Congress. At another level, it probably implies Sonia is not in any hurry to form an alternative government at the Centre.

Much depends on how Pawar reacts to the relapse of the Maharashtra crisis.MUMBAI: Meanwhile, the office of MPCC president Ranjit Deshmukh today denied that he had resigned from his job. The MPCC said: ``We have been inundated with calls ever since a TV channel aired the `news' of his resignation. There is notruth to it.''