Kalmadi, who has not forgiven Pawar for his rout in the Lok Sabha elections and the attempts later to deny him a seat in the Upper House, has ambitious plans of taking on Pawar on his home turf in the near future.

Kalmadi plans to tap some 30 independent Assembly members, seven of whom are ministers in the Manohar Joshi Government.

As part of a strategy to reinforce his Aghadi for a more serious role in State politics, Kalmadi held a meeting with Harshavardhan Patil, Minister of State for Agriculture who is an independent member from Indapur Assembly constituency, at his residence on Saturday night.

Patil and Kalmadi, sources said, discussed ``various possibilities'' and agreed to work closely. The duo decided to undertake an extensive Sampark Abhiyan (an exercise in mass contact) at the talukalevel in Pune district after next week's Ganesh festival.

The leaders would then take their campaign to neigbouring Baramati, Pawar's home constituency.

``The long-term strategy is to create conditions to defeat Pawar's nephew Ajit in the Assembly elections some two years from now. If that happens, it will be a major setback for Pawar,'' the sources said.

A local Congress leader admits that Kalmadi may be trying to encash the fact that there are many in the State Congress who, even at this juncture, doubt whether they will be given party tickets.

``Many have been let down by Pawar and there are others who have been antagonised by his nephew whose arrogance is well known,'' the Congressman conceded.

Kalmadi's Aghadi office-bearers have already initiated a campaign to make inroads into cooperative politics in the Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal area which forms part of the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency.

Although Kalmadi refused to comment on the dropping of Pawar's name as chairman of this year's PuneFestival, he is said to have made it clear to his close associates that ``Pawar never had any active participation in the mega event. Now he is doing his job and I am doing mine.''

For the moment, Kalmadi is playing safe when he says ``I am with the BJP at the Centre.'' But sources say he knows he still has to do a lot if he has to dabble in Maharashtra politics and settle scores with Pawar.