Sharad Pawar skipping Solapur in the last leg of campaigning today has made party candidate Mukesh Abdulpurkar land in a soup, even as his rivals in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress had created a hullabaloo by roping in a battery of stalwarts in the past three weeks.

Solapurites heard Home Minister L K Adwani, Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan, BJP spokesman Venkaiah Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde and cine stars Sunil Dutt, Jitendra and others while the NCP depended on Chhagan Bhujbal and Pawar.

The local leaders and the NCP candidates for Lok Sabha and State Assembly were expecting Pawar on his whirlwind tour today on the last day of campaigning. But Pawar failed to do it, apparently putting his own men in deep trouble.

The NCP has fielded Dr Mukesh Abdulpurkar against Congress general secretary Sushilkumar Shinde and former BJP MP Lingraj Valyal in the Solapur Lok Sabha constituency. The political observers here have predicted the possible division of votes between Shinde and Abdulpurkar could eventually help the BJP candidate.

Many a eyebrows were raised over Pawar bypassing Solapur, especially in the wake of a close protege of Shinde predicting the cancellation of Pawar's visit as the political situation has changed in the last two days.

The NCP sources claim that the party president was forced to cancel the tour owing a technical snag in a chopper Pawar was using. Yet, not many are ready to buy this argument since the distance from Kurduwadi taluka in the district where he addressed a rally, is just an hour's motor drive away from Solapur.