MAHARASHTRA-The Loyalty Test

and Ghati Mamu Bhanja in the Mantola police station area and aimed at and shot people inside their houses. The victims included Mohammad Nasim, 40, who was climbing up the stairs of his house. Even six days after the incident, blood could still be seen on the stairs. Jamal, an 18-year old boy, was shot dead while he was brushing his teeth, while Babubhai, 35, was hit by a bullet when playing with his three-year old son. According to Haji Islam Qureshi, this was a Muslim area and there had been no communal trouble there AFTER the ouster of the party's chief ministers in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, it was only a matter of time that a similar exercise in self-destabilisation would be carried out by the Congress(l) high command in Maharashtra also, the one remaining state with a Congress(I) chief minister. It was therefore no surprise when a well-orchestrated chorus by his own cabinet colleagues began for the resignation of Sharad Pawar. Only, this time it seems very probable that the party leadership has bitten more than it can chew.