The strain between NCP and Congress over relegation of Sharad Pawar to the third place in the Cabinet’s  pecking order is likely to worsen with the UPA’s Maharashtra ally not ready to accept such “pettiness”. Sources in the NCP said that Pawar’s relegation was a deliberate move on the part of the Congress. For days after Pranab Mukherjee’s resignation as Finance Minister, the NCP chief was listed after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Union Cabinet’s seniority list.