Chaturvedi, who represents East Nagpur in the State Assembly, was suspended from the party for six years while a show-cause notice was issued to Patel for their alleged role in the defeat of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's hand-picked nominee, R D Pradhan, in the Rajya Sabha polls in June last.

Besides, the tacit support was extended to independent candidate Arun Mehta in the State Legislative Council polls held simultaneously. Mehta, perceived to be a Sharad Pawar loyalist, had resigned from the Congress and contested the polls as an independent.

According to Tilak Bhavan

, the State Congress headquarters sources, a communication to this effect was conveyed to both the party leaders a couple of days back.

Both, Chaturvedi and Patel were servedshow-cause notices in the wake of Pradhan's defeat. They were accused of having played a key role in the defeat of Sonia's candidate.

Sonia's enquiry team, led by Vijay Bhashkar Reddy, Rajesh Pilot, and A K Antony, which rushed to the State capital after the debacle, looked into the mess and felt that it was curious that Pradhan lost and the other party nominee, Najma Heptulla, scraped through in the third round. This was when independent nominees, Suresh Kalmadi and Vijay Darda, made it comfortably to the Rajya Sabha.

It was the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sharad Pawar, who extended moral support to Darda which was taken seriously by the party leadership. The Maharashtra mess also involved the legislative council polls. The rebel Congressman, Arun Mehta, a minister in Pawar's council, was voted to the council against the party diktat. As many as ten party legislators proposed the nomination of Mehta in the polls.

In his reply to the show cause notice, Chaturvedi, was understood to havedenied any role in defeat of Pradhan. He reportedly pointed out that it was Pawar loyalists who supported the candidature of Mehta, an independent, for the council poll and the Maratha warlord openly extended his moral support to Darda, jeopardising the prospect of Pradhan.