Political pressure mounted on Sharad Pawar over the Pune IPL bid row with BJP and Shiv Sena today demanding his resignation and the CPI-M seeking a joint parliamentary probe into the issue.

The twists and turns in the Pune bid row continued with City Corporation MD Aniruddh Deshpande refuting allegations that he kept the IPL in the dark about his "individual bid" for the franchise but conceded that the company's name was used in his bid documents.

Accusing Pawar of "misrepresenting facts", BJP demanded that he should quit or the Prime Minister should act against him.

"If Pawar fails to quit, Prime Minister should take action against him... Mr Prime Minister you always talk of integrity in governance. We will judge you on the action you take on this matter," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in Uttan in Maharashtra after a two-day convention of chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.

In Hyderabad, party chief Nitin Gadkari too made it clear that Pawar should step down.

In Mumbai, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray demanded that Pawar step down as Agriculture Minister, saying the yardstick applied in former minister Shashi Tharoor's case should be adopted against the NCP boss also.

"Earlier also doubts were raised about Pawar's involvement in IPL bidding. At least now, he should quit as once again his name has cropped up in the controversy," he said.

Raising the pitch in Delhi, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said a joint parliamentary probe should be launched to investigate all the ramifications of the IPL.

"Every day there are new elements and new issues coming up.

That should be probed by a JPC," he told reporters.

Congress maintained that Pawar will have to fend for himself.

"The Congress party's stand is the same. These are the nitty-gritty details about which you will have to ask the NCP.

A general inquiry into the matter is already on," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

Amid reports that City Corporation had authorised Deshpande to bid on the company's behalf in a January board meeting, Deshpande conceded this was true but said there was a subsequent resolution which gave him the go-ahead for an individual bid.

The firm, in which Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's family has 16 per cent equity, had earlier denied being part of the bid but BCCI President Shashank Manohar yesterday rejected its claim, saying the failed bid came in the company's name.

Deshpande said he had told the IPL that he would float a new company after winning the bid, which was eventually clinched by the Sahara Group. Deshpande said the City Corporation allowed him to use the company's name on the documents as very little time was left for the bids to open.

"Since we were not successful bidders, nothing further had to be done," he added.

City Corporation's involvement had been vehemently denied by Pawar and his Parliamentarian daughter Supriya Sule.

The duo had said that the Pawar family was not involved in any bidding process but had admitted that Deshpande was allowed to go ahead in his "individual capacity".

Reacting to the reports of the January meeting which authorised Deshpande to bid on City Corporation's behalf, Sule said she was not part of the firm's Board and did not know of any such resolution.

"We don't know anything about this because Mr Pawar and I don't sit on the company's Board. I don't know why a mountain is being made out of a molehill," she said.

"How would we know? Have we signed any resolution? Do we sit on the Board? So how can we be held responsible for that?" she fumed.

Sule said she was baffled by the controversy generated by a bid which had not even won.

Not convinced by the Pawar family's stand, the CPI-M said the manner in which the BCCI and the IPL have conducted the bids and the franchising have raised a host of issues.

"The matter cannot be disposed of with some routine enquiries conducted by the agencies under the Finance Ministry," Yechury said.

"What is required is a full-fledged probe. This should be done by a Joint Parliamentary Committee," he said after a meeting of the CPI-M Polit Bureau which discussed the issue.