For a large section of the Congressmen, the iftar meant the party was back in consideration among Muslims and the large-scale event was a public display of that confidence. But the gesture has sparked off sharp reactions in the Samajwadi Party, the predominant party in Muslim areas that joined hands with the Congress this January to massively defeat the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the general election.

Samajwadi Party leaders are somewhat bitter with their Congress experience of the last 11 months; they believe that their clout among the Muslims was intelligently used by Pawar to signify a confidence-building measure but their alliance has not been very beneficial. ``Congress leaders may say what they like but the fact is that ground-level Congressmen do not work for a SP candidate. It showed in our results,''said a senior SP leader.

The grand alliance, Congress with SP and Republican Party of India, consolidated the non-Sena-BJP votebank as never before. By default, the SP compares its place in the Congress plan with the pre-eminence enjoyed by the Republican Party of India for nearly a decade now. ``Congressmen will work for a RPI candidate, may be grudgingly so, but we find it much more difficult to get a positive response from them in our areas,'' rues the SP leader. Recent discussions in the SP also revolved around the fact that the Congress gained from the alliance in a larger measure than the SP -- Congress can today project itself as having won back the confidence of the Muslims.

In his short speech, Pawar himself asserted that the Congress ``had won back the confidence of the Muslims''. The well-attended iftar sources say the guest list numbered 450-500 -- was in some ways a personal triumph for Pawar whose relationship with the city and the community has been rather chequered in recent years. If the1992-93 communal riots was the first assault, many Muslims believe that Pawar as the then Chief Minister made the second one when a large number of Muslims were hounded and arrested in the wake of the March bomb blasts.

``Abhi himmat hui (now he has the courage) to hold a large iftar,'' said a veteran Congress leader who attended it. The attitude of the Muslims towards the Congress has changed for the better, say many Congressmen. But such remarks cut the SP to the bone since a stronger and resurgent Congress -- confident of some Muslim support -- might make the SP that much irrelevant in the grand plan. Winning the complete confidence of the SP will take more effort than an iftar, it seems.