The NCP boss was also said to be upset over a Cabinet berth for Satish Chaturvedi, another of his detractors who won the Nagpur East Assembly seat on a Congress ticket.

While More was trounced by Pawar in Baramati during the Lok Sabha elections, Harshawardhan Patil had played a major role in garnering vital support from independent MLAs for the previous BJP-Shiv Sena government. Now that these men have been made ministers, the Pawar camp is in no mood to keep quiet and let bygones be bygones.

Sources close to Pawar told The Indian Express that the NCP chief would never accept attempts to strengthen his opponents, especially those whom he considers a potential threat in his own Baramati constituency.

The NCP had stoutly opposed the names of More and Patil when the list of probable ministers was being discussed.

Local NCP workers also expressed disappointment over the induction of More and Patil. ``Pawar should not be neglected in his home district where the Congress was routed in the Assembly elections this time,'' a senior NCP man said.

An education baron who made it to Parliament twice, Ramkrishna More was elected to the State Legislative Council from the local self-governing bodies constituency with Pawar's support. He had earlier been defeated in Haveli during the 1995 Assembly elections.

Now a known Pawar-opponent, More was asked by the Congress to contest against Pawar from Baramati after the latter was thrown out of the party. It went to More's credit that he agreed to take on Pawar at a time when there were no takers in the Congress for the Baramati LS ticket. More finished third, behind Pawar and Pratibha Lokhande of the BJP.

On the other hand, Harshwardhan, nephew of former Baramati MP S B Patil, had challenged Pawar's nephew Ajit. Patil junior supported the Congress-NCP's Democratic Front only at the behest of co-operative tycoon Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil whose territorial hold borders Harshawardhan's Indapur assembly constituency.

Incidentally, even before the NCP chief asked his lieutenants in Mumbai not to take charge of their ministerial offices, the NCP-men here were busy predicting a tug-of-war between Ramkrishna More and Ajit Pawar for control of the neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. Another question doing the rounds was who would stake claim to the office of the district guardian minister.

The Pune district now has seven members in the State cabinet what with the induction of Vasant Chavan and Dilip Valse-Patil, both NCP, besides More and Patil.