Pichad, opposition leader in the State Assembly, is reportedly undergoing treatment at an ayurvedic clinic-resort in Kerala which should amply justify his absence, party sources said.

However, Bhujbal's case is seen as serious and will be taken up by PCC president Prataprao Bhosale with party leaders, they added. Bhosale is expected to discuss this with Madhavrao Scindia, AICC general secretary for Maharashtra, in the light of the two-day open house that Pawar convened for MPs, MLAs and party workers in Mumbai earlier this week.

It is learnt that party general secretary Oscar Fernandes establishedtelephonic contact with Bhujbal during the day persuading him to take the next flight out to Delhi, but in vain.

Bhujbal was not sure of travelling tomorrow for the extended Congress Working Committee meeting either.

``It's true that I have not gone for the meeting but I don't want to say anything more on this at this juncture,'' he said when asked to explain his absence. However, he had apparently explained to Fernandes that he was trying to meet a few key people in Mumbai and discuss the issue raised by Pawar and others with them; his absence may please be seen in that light.

But the scores of PCC office-bearers at Tilak Bhavan, the State party headquarters, caustic about Pawar's moves are in no mood to consider Bhujbal's or Pichad's absence with any measure of understanding. The PCC has virtually no right to take action against them even if their absence is interpreted as deliberate defiance of the party diktat; action if any can be taken only by the AICC.

``Bhujbal was never a Congressman, it's nosurprise that he can't understand the party culture,'' said a veteran leader. It's no secret that a large section of Congressmen at the helm of affairs in the state, generally referred to as loyalists, do not share a good rapport with Bhujbal who defected from the Shiv Sena in December 1991. Meanwhile, the loyalists continued with their hunger strike for the second day today at Tilak Bhavan and the Mahila Congress came out strongly against Pawar and other for hitting out at a woman leader.