According to available information, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and one of the architects of the Congress-RPI alliance in Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar, former deputy chief minister Nashikrao Tirpude and several other well-wishers of the pro-Dalit party, approached both Ambedkar and Gavai-Athawale, for a patch-up in the interests of the secular forces in the country, particularly in Maharashtra.

Besides, Ramdas Athawale, one of the aspirants for the post of president in the organisation, met Ambedkar thrice in the recent past and reportedly requested him not to hold parallel elections and the convention at Nanded on October 28 and 29 next. However, Ambedkar flatly refused the requestand was adamant on his scheduled election programmes.

Talking to The Indian Express, a senior RPI leader and a close associate of Ambedkar, informed that senior party leader and one of the party presidium members Raja Dhale, may be elected as the new president of the organisation while Nana Shamkule of Nagpur is likely to be elected as the new general secretary. The proposed meeting may elect Ranjit Meshram as the president of Maharashtra unit of the party.

The party would elect one president, five vice-presidents, one general secretary, five secretaries, one treasurer and 54 central executive members in the scheduled elections to be held on October 28 at Nanded. Besides, organisational elections of the State unit will also be held on the occasion. An open session for the party workers will be held there on October 29.

At least five presidium members of the party would participate in the open session and some of them may even contest the organisational elections, the trusted lieutenant ofAmbedkar said. Prominent presidium members who are likely to join the Ambedkar faction include: T M Kamble, Ghanshyam Talwalkar, Raja Dhale and B C Kamble. Of them, B C Kamble may be inducted in the organisation as vice-president.

``Unity in the organisation is now impossible. We will have two formal factions of RPI after October 29,'' the associate said and appealed to all RPI workers to attend the open session and participate in the elections at Nanded.

According to him, Domansinh Nagpure, the lone RPI legislator from Madhya Pradesh and another senior party functionary of neighbouring state, Wasudeorao Bagde, are likely to participate in the proposed elections. The last date for the filing of nomination papers is October 24.

Meanwhile, the Ambedkar faction conducted district-level organisational elections by first week of October and is holding ward election of Nagpur on October 24. The faction completed taluka and ward elections of Mumbai, Aurangabad and Pune recently.