PUNE, June 4: To support or not to support Municipal Commissioner Arun Bhatia is fast assuming a political hue with the anti-Suresh Kalmadi faction in both Congress and non-Congress parties preferring to adopt a wait-and-watch attitude rather than let him draw mileage out of the issue.Shiv Sena's 14 corporators have signed the memorandum supporting the move to table a no-confidence motion against Bhatia. Its alliance partner - the BJP is, however, treading cautiously before coming out in the open against Bhatia- specially in the light of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Despite Suresh Kalmadi's grand show of merging his one-year old outfit Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi with the Congress, the old loyalists who had never deserted the party - are unwilling to demonstrate their `affection' for the new leader. Due to their reluctance a meeting of the old hands at the Congress Bhavan decided to appoint a four-member committee of Vandana Chavan, Ramdas Pawar, Ajit Apte and Ajit Darekar to work out their strategy vis-a-vis Bhatia.
Interestingly, the meeting at Congress Bhavan preferred not to invite their new found MVA colleagues. Sources claimed that they refused to technically recognise the MVA's merger with the Congress which seems to further complicate the issue of supporting or not supporting Bhatia. City unit chief Mohan Joshi's appeal to party workers to attend another meeting with Suresh Kalmadi at the Pune Municipal Corporation drew a blank response.
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