Pawar, however said, ``I don't say anything now,'' to the question on the possible split in the Congress after the polls. He, however, denied any possibility of the Congress and NCP joining hands in the State.

The NCP is getting `extremely favourable' response from the electorate in Khandesh, Vidarbha and Marathwada, according to Pawar who spoke to reporters after addressing a meeting at Katol (Ramtek, Lok Sabha, Nagpur district), for his Assembly candidate Anil Deshmukh. However, in Western Maharashtra (where his party is expected to perform the best), he said it would be ``a tough fight.''

Revealing that there was a sizable shift among votersof the BJP towards NCP, Pawar said, ``However, our main support base comes from the Shiv Sena and Congress.'' On Athawale's statement that he might consider supporting the Congress it were to for a government at the Centre, Pawar said, ``I don't know about that statement. I am yet to speak to Athawale.'' Athawale's faction of the RPI is in a poll alliance with the NCP).

Asked if he would consider a rapprochement with the Congress without Sonia, Pawar said, ``That is a hypothetical situation. Let the name (of another leader) come, then we'll see.'' The NCP is contesting 65 Lok Sabha seats outside Maharashtra and 37 in the State.

Dismissing reports of a possible post-poll tie-up with the BJP in the State, Pawar said ``These are mischievous reports spread by some journalists and the BJP. Common people have accepted that we will not go with the BJP.''

Asked why the NCP had not put up candidates against Pappu Kalani and Hitendra Thakur in Mumbai, he said the allies of the NCP had asked to contest thoseseats, and so they were given. (In Vasai, the Janata Dal (Secular) has put up a candidate).

Katol, an Assembly seat which every party seems to have made a prestigious one, has Virendra Deshmukh of the PWP, a tough contender against Anil Deshmukh. The Congress candidate (Ramesh Gupta) as well as the Sena candidate (Deepti Kalve) are hardly visibly in the fray.

In 1995, the PWP fell out with the NCP on this one seat, Virendra Deshmukh having lost to Anil Deshmukh by a margin of only 4,000 votes. Anil Deshmukh's tenure as culture and education minister in the Sena-BJP government, and now his return to Pawar's NCP, may not go down well with his voters, though they acknowledge that he has worked for them.