Significantly, the Chief Minister Manohar Joshi announced at a meeting of Sena leaders that the government will provide Rs 832 cr to the MSEB for the purpose.

Thackeray's populist announcement at his Dussehra rally on Thursday came literally as a bolt from the blue not only for the BJP Ministers, but even for the Shiv Sena Cabinet members, who were not in the know of their supremo's impending decision. Moreover, the fact that BJP's Gopinath Munde has the Energy portfolio makes matters even worse. ``Though it was a major policy decision involving huge financial burden, we werenot even told informally about it,'' a senior BJP Minister said, in by now an all too familiar tone of lament.

Sounding pensive, the BJP Minister said now that the architect of the alliance has made the announcement, it will have to be placed before the Cabinet for approval. And betraying the mood within the BJP, he said, ``I feel that it will not be feasible to exempt the farmers from paying electricity bills.''

The Minister said by and large, the Shiv Sena has ignored the BJP while taking major policy decisions. Citing examples, he spoke of how Housing Minister Sureshdada Jain had chalked out the Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp for the rehabilitation of slumdwellers without consulting the BJP.

Subsequently, the entire scheme had to be redrafted following a strong protest lodged by the BJP. Incidentally, the row was resolved only when Thackeray stepped in.

The immediate impact of Thackeray's largesse is feared to be two-fold.

Firstly, it will plunge the government further into financial crisis andsecondly, the World Bank might permanently snap its ties with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

As per the MSEB's own records, out of the 84 lakh farmers in the state, nearly 24 lakh are subscribers of the MSEB and their annual power consumption is worth Rs 800 crore. ``At the moment, power supply to these farmers is heavily subsidised. Against the rate of Rs 2.10 per unit, the MSEB is charging only between 30 and 40 paise. If we waive even this, it will surely affect the already weak health of the once most efficiently run Board,'' a senior Board official pointed out. Besides low rates for the agricultural consumers, the Board gives a subsidy of Rs 79.28 crore for rural drinking water supply schemes, Rs 3025.24 crore for agricultural consumers in drought and scarcity-affected areas, Rs 546 crore for concessional tariffs to domestic consumers, Rs 35.63 crore for street lights to gram panchayats and Rs 12.98 crore to low-tension power consumers.

Voicing his apprehension, the official said the WorldBank has already expressed strong displeasure over the manner in which the Board is being run. In the latest communication, it had specifically asked the government to distance itself from the Board in the process of decision-making.

In fact, when a high-level delegation led by Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, Chief Secretary P Subramanian and MSEB Chairman Ashok Basak called on World Bank officials at Washington on Tuesday, they refused to extend financial assistance to any of the MSEB projects on the ground that it has failed to comply with the conditions laid down by the Bank.

Another senior official of the Energy Department said if the government decides to implement Thackeray's announcement, it will create a series of problems for the Board as other consumers too will demand similar concessions. And with the government deciding to bear the burden, it will be another disastrous step, since it is already facing an unprecedented funds crunch.

Though Chief Minister Manohar Joshi has been at painsto assure that there is no financial crisis; a note of caution from Finance Minister Mahadev Shivankar, failure to make payments to the contractors of the Krishna Valley Development Corporation and delay in taking a decision on the payment of arrears as recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission clearly hint at a depleted financial strength of a state whose prosperity was never doubted till the recent past.