Union agriculture minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar's readiness to approach Congress president Sonia Gandhi against the National Sports Development Bill - which he expressed in Tuesday's cabinet meeting - entailed an "implicit threat" to the alliance between the two parties. Sources familiar with the deliberations in the cabinet said although Pawar did not state it explicitly, his expressions did adequately make the point that he "was willing to part ways if push comes to shove."