At an extra-ordinary meeting on Monday, nearly half of the INTUC's 90-member general council, led by Vijay Kamble ``sacked'' their president Govindrao Adik and reversed a few decisions taken by him. This will be ratified at the full meeting of the general council scheduled for March 14. The aggressive posture of the Pawar camp is learnt to have his ``blessings'' though the Maratha leader has not come clean about it. Adik, Congress Member of Parliament, became INTUC president in March 1997 and subsequently positioned himself as president of the powerful Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS), the only recognised union in the textile industry here. The RMMS has a powerfulsay in the Government decision to allow or disallow sale of mill land.

Once a Pawar acolyte, Adik moved away from the group last year as he consolidated his position in INTUC and affiliate organisations. Kamble and others resented his method of functioning. He began alienating the pro-Pawar group, dethroned Kamble from the post of working president recently and followed it up by sacking Bhingardive and Paradkar as general secretary and secretary of INTUC respectively. Adik reportedly became very aggressive after party president Sonia Gandhi addressed an INTUC state-wide rally last month on his home turf Srirampur in Ahmednagar district a month ago.Adik's contention is that the INTUC constitution does not provide for the post of a working president; it was Pawar's largesse. Apart from RMMS, the INTUC has a substantial presence in the State Transport corporation, sugar factories and the industrial sector. It's a powerful platform. The pro-Pawar group believes that Adik's witch-hunt has its roots in the factthat Gandhi consented to be on his stage even though he excluded Pawar from it.

``Whatever his fight with Pawarsaheb, he can't square all his accounts in the Maharashtra INTUC. It's not fair on the thousands of workers we represent,'' said Kamble. It transpires that Adik had not called a general council meeting in two years . Adik has declared the Monday meeting as ``unofficial'' and threatened to initiate disciplinary action against the group that sacked him. They, in turn, are preparing to elect a new president on March 14. Of course, both factions with their decisions may approach the courts to decide on the issue but the show of strength is the Congress way to decide difficult issues. The pro-Pawar group is working overtime to get over 70 of the 90-odd general council members on its side. Whichever way the INTUC issue is decided, it's certain now that the factional fight has paved the way for a vertical split in the party ranks.