Prithviraj Chavan, Maharashtra chief minister, wants the Centre to deal with Anna Hazare instead of sending him back to the state. He has urged the central government not to send Hazare to his village, Ralegan Siddhi, near Pune.

Chavan on Wednesday parked himself in Delhi to monitor the developments on the Hazare front. During a brief meeting with P Chidambaram, Union home minister, he made it clear that Hazare’s return could put the state in turmoil.

Ralegan Siddhi could become the epicentre of agitation leading to law and order problems. In the backdrop of the local bodies’ elections beginning from December, it would be ideal to keep Hazare out of the state, he told the home minister.

The Congress-NCP combine could be in trouble if the agitation intensified, a senior MPCC functionary said. “Public anger would affect our chances in the local bodies’ elections,” he said.

“At a time when the chief minister is trying to pull the government out of the Maval mess [three farmers were killed in police firing during a land acquisition protest off the Mumbai-Pune Expressway], he does not want to be burdened with the Hazare agitation.” A Congress general secretary said the Shiv Sena-BJP combine and the MNS could exploit the situation.

In the context of state politics, the BJP’s state unit is confident that Hazare’s agitation would work to their advantage. “But we do not intend to do so,” Vinod Tawde, BJP general secretary, said. “You cannot ignore the fact that people are spontaneously joining the protests. It reflects peoples anger against the system.”