For the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party, she is the villain. For
the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party, she is the heroine.

But if you ask Supriya Patil, the epicentre of the political
earthquake shaking the ruling Democratic Front (DF) government, she
will say she is only the victim.

Patil, a member of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), was defeated
in March in the elections for the president of the Raigad district
zilla parishad (ZP). She blames local MLA Sunil Tatkare, of the
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), for the upset loss.

The NCP reportedly helped the Shiv Sena get the president's post. In
return, the NCP got the vice president's slot.

Both Supriya and her party took the defeat to heart, in her case
quite literally. She had to undergo emergency heart surgery while her
husband, Jayant Patil, declared war on Tatkare through his PWP. He
threatened to walk out of the Congress-NCP's DF government if Tatkare
was not removed. His demand was accepted, but only temporarily, as
Tatkare was reinducted into the Cabinet on Friday, just two months
later.

Now, the PWP has pulled out of the state government as promised. The
Sena-BJP saw their chance and started chipping away at the DF's
allies.
Supriya, however, doesn't think she is to be blamed for the
imbroglio. ``We were going to pull out sooner or later. We have been
raising issues within the Cabinet and in the co-ordination committee
meeting for the last one year. Tatkare engineering my defeat was the
last straw on the camel's back,'' she says at her Alibaug residence.

She denies her husband pulled out of the state government only
because she lost the ZP elections. ``We would have done the same if
anyone else was defeated. Our party is run on principles, not on
individuals or opportunistic adjustments. We wanted to show that we
don't compromise on principles. We did not aim to bring down the
government.''

She says the Congress-NCP should be blamed for the ongoing crisis
within the DF. ``It was their responsibility to ensure basic
requirements of alliance politics.''

She doesn't know what went wrong between the NCP and the PWP. ``For
two years there were no squabbles. But since last year, every small
incident sparked off tension. We held the view that since the NCP and
the PWP were partners at the state level, they should be allies even
at the district level. But Tatkare had other ideas. He insisted the
NCP could not shake hands with the PWP in Raigad and started making
wild accusations. There was a limit to our patience.''

And, what about the PWP's own adjustment with the Sena in Roha-
Mangaon? ``Oh, we did not have any truck with the Sena. Their man
contested on our symbol and was elected. You cannot call that an
alliance,'' she insists.

She also denies her husband's friendly relations with BJP leader
Gopinath Munde played a part in the decision to pull out of the DF
government. ``If we were really committed to helping out the BJP, we
would have saved the Vajpayee government in 1999 when he was defeated
by one vote. It is common knowledge our MP Ramshet Thakur voted
against him,'' she points out.

Her husband Jayant Patil says, ``We're a small party in a very small
district. How could we decide on the course of others?'' He also
denies any rethinking of their decision. ``We had warned them in
advance. They completely ignored us. Now what's the use? The arrow
has left the bow,'' he says.

He made light of the reports of his meeting with Leader of the
Opposition Narayan Rane. ``There is no way we will ever support the
Sena-BJP. My room at the MLAs' hostel is open to all as I am a member
of a legislative committee. They come sometimes to pay a visit and I
can't stop them,'' he says.