|
Mumbai: Maharashtra's
Democratic Front government suddenly plunged into a crisis Tuesday
as Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar quit the
cabinet, while other party ministers offered to resign and
legislators called for leaving the Congress-led coalition.
Pawar, 53, resigned in a cloud of allegations that he had
arbitrarily doled out irrigation contracts worth over Rs.20,000
crore when he was the water resources minister 1999-2009, before
he was elevated as deputy chief minister and handled the plum
finance and energy portfolios.
However, Pawar said he would remain the Nationalist Congress Party
(NCP) Legislature Party leader until his party and legislators
desired.
He declared that he would not join the government as a minister
until his name was "cleared" of the alleged irregularities.
"People are jealous of the rise of the NCP," Pawar asserted, but
did not elaborate.
Amid a clamour by some NCP legislators to quit the ruling
coalition, all the remaining 19 party ministers in the 43-member
Prithviraj Chavan government also offered to quit and sent in
their resignations to state party chief Madhukarrao Pichhad.
A numbed Congress kept mum over the surprise developments while
Chavan, waiting to board a plane at Mumbai to go to Pune,
immediately returned to 'Varsha', the chief minister's official
residence, for consultations with his party leaders.
NCP chief and union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, senior
leader and union minister Praful Patel as well as Ajit Pawar
himself, however, assured the Congress that the NCP would not quit
the ruling coalition or destabilise the government.
"There is no question of pulling out from the Maharashtra
government," Sharad Pawar told Times Now channel, adding the state
government is "stable".
"My word is final. No other NCP minister would resign from the
state government," asserted the NCP chief, who said he had given
"permission" to Ajit Pawar, his nephew, to resign.
The opposition, particularly Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav
Thackeray, attempted to fuel the crisis by calling upon Chavan to
accept the NCP challenge by accepting all the resignations and not
to succumb to its "pressure tactics".
However, the Congress, which two months ago sought to present a
White Paper on the state irrigation scenario, was silent on the
developments.
Chavan merely said late Tuesday that he would take a final
decision after consulting all concerned.
On the other hand, an aggressive Pichhad said the NCP chief would
take a final call on all the resignations, after a crucial party
meeting here Wednesday afternoon.
The developments Tuesday are seen as a move by Ajit Pawar to
checkmate both the Congress and the opposition which has been
gunning for him and other NCP ministers with accusations of
corruption.
At another level, it is also seen as a strategy by party chief
Sharad Pawar to ease out some NCP ministers who are under a cloud,
like Chhagan Bhujbal, Sunil Tatkare and Gulabrao Devkar.
Ajit Pawar's resignation, followed by all NCP ministers', would
offer the party chief a free hand to appoint people with a clean
record and probably reward some of his favourites like Home
Minister R.R. Patil with additional responsibilities.
The Tuesday developments came barely two months after a week-long
stand-off between the Congress and NCP in the central government
when both Pawar and Patel stayed away from crucial cabinet
meetings chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The issue was, however, resolved after a co-ordination committee
mechanism was created at both the central and the state level.
In Maharashtra, the NCP is apparently irked by Chavan's attempt to
question the decisions and performance of party ministers, unlike
his predecessors.
Known for his brusque style of functioning, Ajit Pawar, who once
admitted that he was "a ruffian in politics", had shot into
limelight in November 2010 when he staged a coup to dislodge
Bhujbal from the deputy chief minister's post.
He grabbed the opportunity when the Congress was compelled to
replace the scam-tainted Ashok Chavan with Prithviraj Chavan.
Ajit Pawar proved his worth when he catapulted the NCP to the top
spot in the local bodies elections earlier this year and also
cobbled up strong alliances to bag power in 10 important
municipalities in the state.
|
Comments
|
Quick links