Within hours of Governor P C Alexander administering the oath to the new ministers at 4 pm -- which took the strength of the ministry to the all-time high of 61 -- the NCP went on the offensive. National president of the NCP, Sharad Pawar, held a meeting at his New Delhi residence and condemned the extraordinarily large size of the ministry and said his party might even consider pulling out of the alliance.

"We are unhappy over the size of the ministry when the financial status of the state is nearing bankruptcy," Pawar said when contacted in New Delhi. "The ministry has been expanded in a manner that broke the understanding reached between NCP and Congress," he said adding, "we have asked the state government to takecorrective measures."

Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who sat glumly next to Vilasrao throughout the swearing-in ceremony, also held out a threat: "The size of the Cabinet is unacceptable to us since it is in breach of the understanding between us. We had decided to not have more than 50 ministers at any cost. If it is not pruned forthwith, we will not participate in tomorrow's Cabinet meeting."

Vilasrao, however, tried to underplay the tension with his partner and defended his exceptionally large Cabinet saying the composition of the alliance necessitated it. He insisted there was no threat to the government. "In a coalition government, such disputes are bound to come, but I am sure we will sort them out amicably," Deshmukh said.

Bhujbal and NCP spokesman Praful Patel were upset over the manner in which the Congress added three additional names to the list of Cabinet ministers. "We have asked Vilasrao to sack them -- Satish Chaturvedi, Madhu Chavan (both Cong) and Harshvardhan Patil (Ind) --failing which we will not allocate the portfolios to NCP ministers," Bhujbal pointed out.

Bhujbal said when a decision was taken to form the government, it was decided that the Congress and NCP would have 22 ministers each plus six from the allies. "We were shocked the Cabinet has swollen to 61. Three names were unilaterally added. And when we objected the Congress asked us to add three from our party. In that event, it will touch 64 or 65 and we don't want that," Bhujbal added.

Praful Patel observed that if it was interested in continuing the alliance with the NCP, the Congress should mend its ways. "On the one hand, we are expressing concern over the deteriorating financial situation and on the other, we will be spending crores of rupees on maintaining the Cabinet. This is unacceptable. They must immediately trim the Cabinet, failing which we will have to reconsider our decision to participate in the government," Patel added.

Vilasrao insisted the Congress was not alone responsible for the size. "Wehave not increased the strength on our own. If we increased by three, so have they. In addition, we have had to accommodate members from the Janata Dal, PWP, RPI and Bahujan Mahasangh. Since more than six parties are involved, we had to accommodate all. In the process, the Cabinet became big. I admit that, but the situation is beyond my control," Deshmukh added.

The proposal that the NCP has now made to the Congress is that the latter first drop the abovenamed three ministers and then each party drop three or four more to get the size under control. But that is not an easy option for the Congress, specially after all the trouble it has been having in doling out ministries -- a situation highlighted by the fact that portfolios have still not been allocated. Having taken the octave levels so high so suddenly and making demands that the Congress will find impossible to accept, it is being speculated that the NCP has some cards up its sleeve that it is not willing to reveal now.