123Pune.com

Pune (PTI): An altercation between BJP and NCP workers on Friday night has put the 'Pune Pattern,' the exceptional coming together of BJP-NCP-Shiv Sena to rule Pune civic body, in a jeopardy.

The friction, triggered by allegations of corruption made by the BJP general secretary and former state deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde against NCP president Sharad Pawar and his nephew and Maharashtra Irrigation Minister Ajit Pawar earlier this week, snowballed into a scuffle here with the activists of both (NCP and BJP) parties staging protests in front of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) building.

After a group of NCP activists staged a demonstration condemning Munde, the BJP workers too organized a counter protest that led to exchanging of blows.

Police intervened to bring the situation under control even as both the party workers indulged in a war of slogans.

Later, Anil Bhosale, leader of NCP members in PMC, told reporters that since the BJP had insulted the Pawars with baseless allegations of land grabbing in the district, the Pune Pattern had ceased to exist in the PMC.

The civic elections had thrown up a hung house in last year elections and the three parties-BJP-NCP-Shiv Sena-had struck an understanding to capture power by keeping the Congress out. The move was seen as the outcome of political rivalry between district Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar of NCP and city Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi.

Much speculation had been rife following secular NCP forging an alliance with the saffron parties-BJP and Shiv Sena on whether the Pune Pattern, severely condemned by Congress, will be extended at state and national level where both the parties (Congress-NCP) are sharing power.

The saffron parties and NCP had dismissed such a possibility saying the pattern emerged out of compulsions of local politics.

Asked to react to the NCP stand after the fracas, the BJP leader in PMC Vikas Matkari today told PTI, "we are still commited to the Pune Pattern which was a political necessity. But that does not mean that BJP workers would tolerate filthy language used against Munde by NCP.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200807121440.htm