Both Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and his deputy Gopinath Munde appear to have already exercised the option. ``The government does not agree with the resolution of no-confidence passed on Friday,'' Joshi said, clearly indicating that Chandrashekhar will not be transferred; at least not with immediate effect.

Though the General Body of the TMC voted to pass the no-confidence motion on Friday - and later exulted in their victory - the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government has, in a clever move, given Chandrashekhar a breather.

A provision made recently in the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act 1949, on the lines of an amendment made in the Bombay Municipal Corproation Act in the late '80s, gives the government the right torequest the General Body to review the resolution/motion of no-confidence. Any resolution passed by the General Body can be dealt with in this manner as long as the government states why the resolution is ``undesirable and/or unreasonable''.Once the government has exercised this right, the resolution stands suspended till it is taken up for discussion again. Interestingly, this applies even to those resolutions/motions passed with a five-eighth's majority, the minimum required for a no-confidence motion. The TMC General Body of 95 corporators voted 80:11 in favour of the motion - an overwhelming majority. Still, the government need not acccept it and recall the commissioner.

While rejecting the resolution, Joshi also said the decision had the support of Sena chief Bal Thackeray, whose intervention brought Chandrashekhar's demolition work in Thane to a stop last week.

Some of the unauthorised structures that were on Chandrashekhar's demolition list belong to Sena and Congress corporators. Munde'sunequivocal support to Chandrashekhar is not surprising since BJP corporators in the TMC have backed the commissioner against the Sena and Congress onslaught. However, the difference of opinion between the Sena and BJP is likely to have repercussions in the State as the issue of the no-confidence resolution moves towards its logical end.

Senior bureaucrats say the treatment meted out to Chandrashekhar is ``humiliating''; it would make a difference to the IAS officers' morale if the chief secy were to communicate his support or sympathy to Chandrashekhar. ``If he is made to go like this, the corporators will believe it as their victory and his successor will come under pressure to be accommodating,'' said a senior bureaucrat. The Sena had tried several times to rid the Brihanmumbai (then Bombay) Municipal Corporation of its commissioner S S Tinaikar in the '80s. Thackeray had even made public declarations that Sainiks will vote the commissioner out - for similar reasons as now. Tinaikar was perceived to bein the way of several questionable projects that the Sena-dominated House wanted to execute.

However, the party could not muster the required five-eighth's majority in the then 170-member general body. Besides, as Tinaikar once said, ``the government (then Sharad Pawar's Congress government) stood by me.'' Chandrashekhar may be similarly blessed - at least, for now.