The ongoing Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Congress tussle took another turn on Tuesday with Congress President Sonia Gandhi reportedly summoning Maharashtra Congress leader and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to Delhi. On record, Chavan maintained he was headed to Delhi to attend President-elect Pranab Mukherjee’s oath-taking ceremony. NCP has been complaining that Chavan is not taking it on board in any crucial decision in the running of the state government.
Meanwhile, 42 Congress MLAs have written to the Congress president to express their grievances against the Chief Minister. The disgruntled MLAs are said to be aligned with the former chief minister Ashok Chavan’s faction in the state unit.
The NCP, which postponed its party meeting on Tuesday, is said to be looking at a Wednesday deadline for the Congress to come up with some concrete measures to assuage its concerns. An NCP source said, “We are a responsible party, and it would not behove the stature of a leader like Sharad Pawar to be absent at successive Cabinet meetings.”
Another Cabinet meet is slated for Thursday. NCP ministers at the Centre — Agriculture Minister Pawar and Heavy Industries Praful Patel — had kept away from the Cabinet meeting last week, expressing their desire to quit for building their party.
NCP’s list of grievances, which ostensibly had to do with the functioning of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition at the Centre, in reality pertains to the functioning of the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra.
Chavan’s no-nonsense style of functioning and his decision to prepare a white paper on the irrigation department, which is under a minister belonging to the NCP, have angered the latter which senses a witch hunt in the chief minister’s activities.
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Pawar’s nephew, Ajit Pawar, who had been the irrigation minister from 2000 to 2009, and Sunil Tatkare, the present irrigation minister from the NCP, are under the scanner. Adding to Chavan’s list of troubles is the letter by his own party MLAs, who have written to PCC chief Manikrao Thakre, seeking his intervention to settle “issues” ranging from lack of clearances for infrastructure projects to delay in filling administrative posts and release of additional grants for development work in their constituencies.
The NCP is reportedly demanding removal of the chief minister. The Congress, however, hopes to talk to Chavan and have him relent on some decisions, so as to placate the sulking NCP.
Besides, Sharad Pawar is said to be keen on having his daughter, Supriya Sule, inducted into the Cabinet, now that a reshuffle is on the cards.
In the Maharashtra Assembly the Congress has 82 MLAs, while the NCP has 62. Also supporting the government are 27 Independents. In the Opposition, the NDA has 91 MLAs while other parties have 26.