Often, the ridicule is in private conversations but sometimes it takes a public turn. As it did today when the Congress, very gleefully, brought out a 20-page booklet in Marathi with Pawar cartoons that mock his ambition and desire for power. Marked ``for private circulation only'' the booklet is freely available and was being picked up by party workers for distribution in their respective areas. Sure there are jokes and sarcastic limericks on the Shiv Sena-BJP rule but the focus is evidently on Pawar.

Printed in Pune, the home-base of Suresh Kalmadi who is now Pawar's bete-noire and calls the shots in the Pradesh Congress Committee, the booklet was apparently compiled -- and cartoons done -- in a joint effort by `talented' workers. The booklet bears signature-stamps of both Kalmadi andPCC chief Prataprao Bhosale. ``Even if Pawar says he's okay with the Congress minus Sonia Gandhi, the Congress will not welcome Pawar back. However, the NCP (Pawar's party) is welcome minus Pawar,'' he remarked.

As if in tandem, the most cutting cartoons in the booklet are reserved for what the Congress perceives to be Pawar's future. One shows the defeated leader beneath a notice-board at Katewadi village, Baramati taluka, that states: ``All trains to Delhi from here stand cancelled''. Yet another has Pawar proudly claiming the support of two-four MPs unlike the 272 that were required for Gandhi to form the government in April. Pawar and the NCP's riposte is awaited.