Padwal's petitions will come up for hearing before Assembly Speaker Datta Nalawade tomorrow. While two of the affidavits -- by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) chief whip Rohidas Patil and former MPCC president Ranjit Deskmukh -- attack Padwal's plea as ``baseless and false'', current president Prataparao Bhosale's rejoinder comes across as more circumspect.

``So far as my knowledge is concerned, no Independent legislator has been admitted into either the Indian National Congress or the Congress Legislature Party before or after I have taken over the office of the president of MPCC,'' Bhosale submitted.

``I, however, as a matter of abundant caution, went through the records of the MPCC to ascertain whether any letter of June 11 of (MPCC general secretary) Gurunath Kulkarni was written or not. Aftercareful search of the MPCC records, I find that no copy of such letter of Kulkarni exists in the party office,'' his affidavit states.

As for the other contents of the petitions, Bhosale expressed his inability to comment on the ground that he was not the MPCC president in June 1998.

Deshmukh on the other hand submitted that Padwal's plea should be rejected since the seven legisaltors named by him had ``never joined'' the Congress.

``I categorically state that the entire contents of the petitions filed by Padwal are totally false as no such Independent legislators were ever admitted by me or by any office bearer during my entire tenure as MPCC president,'' Deshmukh stated.

Padwal has charged that Rajendra Shingane, Rajvardhan Kadambande, Mohan Gudadhe, Ajit Ghorpade, K C Padvi, Madan Pisal and Deorao Radke, joined the Congress in violation of the Anti-Defection law and has demanded that they be disqualified.

His charge is based on two documents -- the admission forms allegedly submitted by the sevenlegislators and a letter he claimed was issued to them by Kulkarni. The letter inter-alia states that on the direction of Ranjit Deshmukh, the legislators ``have been admitted into the Congress Legislature Party'' and they should ``work for the cause of the party.'' A copy of Kulkarni's letter was allegedly marked for Rohidas Patil.

Kulkarni has already submitted a detailed affidavit before the Speaker claiming the letter was forged and fabricated and that its cognisance should not be taken.

As for the letter said to have been written by Kulkarni, which has been annexed to Padwal's petition, Deshmukh submitted that he had never given Kulkarni any directions as has been claimed in the communication.

``Kulkarni has already affirmed on oath that the letter is forged and fabricated. Hence my giving any such direction in my capacity as MPCC president does not arise at all as the document is forged and fabricated,'' Deshmukh submitted.

In his brief affidavit, Rohidas Patil made it clear that the sevenIndependent legislators were never admitted into the Congress Legislature Party as claimed by Padwal.

``I am making the affidavit for the specific purpose of clarifying the situation and to disprove the false allegations made by Chandrakant Padwal,'' Patil stated.

Significantly, Padwal has maintained a discreet silence after filing the petitions. And the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena's alliance partner, has distanced itself from the controversy.

``Now, it is a litigation between the Shiv Sena and Congress. We do not want to intervene in the row,'' a senior BJP minister said.