MUMBAI: NCP boss Sharad Pawar on Friday secured the resignation of all 19 party ministers in the Maharashtra government in a clear signal intended to emphasize his leadership imprint on the regional outfit.

The resignations are a clear message to the party GenNext that he is in firm control of the party he founded.

Sources said the resignations are a precursor to a proposed reallocation of work among party ministers in the Prithviraj Chavan government. The state unit president is likely to be inducted in the ministry while a possibility of bringing in some other names is not ruled out.

However, insiders said the reallocation of portfolios is secondary to the principal objective of settling the issue about who is the party boss. The doubts had crept in ever since Ajit Pawar arm-twisted his uncle and party supremo Sharad Pawar to become the deputy CM. It had led to heartburn within the party while leaving Pawar senior smarting.

However, the wily Maratha has since settled the issue, first when the nephew had to resign to clear his name from the allegations of corruption, his return to ministry considerably downsizing his growing profile. The resignations of NCP ministers are seen as second message about who is the boss in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections. The state elections would follow the national polls.

Even the Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Dilip Walse Patil was asked to resign as part of a political development that caused flutters in the NCP circles since none of the cabinet ministers were expecting Pawar would ask them to quit. The NCP chief had called the meeting on Friday to discuss party's preparation for the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls. "When we reached the venue of the meeting, a draft resignation letter was already ready and we just signed it. We expected that he (Pawar senior) would at least explain to us the reasons for seeking the resignation," a senior NCP minster told ToI.

Sources in the party said the maneuver is part of Pawar's last-ditch attempt to clean NCP's image ahead of the crucial polls. The party image has lately been marred with allegations of corruption made on several senior cabinet ministers, with as many as five to six of them under scrutiny for their alleged involvement in various scams. While a charge sheet has been filed against minister of state for transport Gulabrao Deokar, education minister Vijaykumar Gavit is under the Bombay High Court scanner. Allegations of corruption have been made against PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal , water resources minister Sunil Tatkare and deputy CM Ajit Pawar, whose name surfaced in the Rs 6,000-crore irrigation scam some months ago.

NCP sources said that Pawar senior is likely to reshuffle his team next week and announce a state president in the second week of June. With this, the party shifted into election mode. It is learnt that Pawar senior asked as many as 11 ministers to prepare for Lok Sabha polls, including Bhujbal, Jaidutt Kshirsagar, Jayant Patil, Walse-Patil and Faujia Khan. An NCP minister pointed out that the manner in which the ministers were forced to sign resignation letters leads one to the conclusion that all ministers are not clean. "If he (Pawar senior) had doubts on integrity of some ministers then he should have separately called them and obtained their resignation," the minister said.

Reacting to the developments in the NCP, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the NCP chief had discussed the issue with him and it is clearly a prerogative of him to seek resignation of his ministers. "The decision to seek resignations of NCP ministers will have no adverse impact on the stability of this government," Chavan added.

The resignations have not yet been forwarded to the CM yet, said officials in the CMO.

(inputs from Clara Lewis)

