Maharashtra Cong presses for local heavyweight, in face of pressure to accommodate an outsider.
The ruling Congress is in a fix over the nomination of a local or an outsider for the by-election slated for July 22 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan from the Rajya Sabha.
Punjab governor and former Union home minister Shivraj Patil, who belongs to the politically influential Lingayat community, is the front runner. However, Telugu actor Chiranjeevi, who merged his Praja Rajyam party into the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, is looked on as a dark horse. Party insiders feel Chiranjeevi's nomination may help reduce tension between Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh over the controversial issues relating to development of the Babli project on the Godavari river and increase in the height of the dam on the Almati river.
The names of Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Commission member Narendra Jadhav are also being mentioned as the choice of the Prime Minister and 10, Janpath. The name of former Union minister of state Suresh Pachauri from Madhya Pradesh has also surfaced. However, Pachauri has denied reports in this regard.
The by-election was necessary after Chavan, who was elected in March 2008 to the upper house, resigned on May 6 after his election to the Maharashtra Legislative Council. As far as Congress party leaders from the state are concerned, former minister Rohidas Patil, a confidant of Chavan, former MP Uttamsinh Pawar, former minister Anees Ahmad and former MP Ramseth Thakur have shown a desire for the nomination and are lobbying for it. While Patil belongs to the Maratha community, Pawar is from the Other Backward Classes (OBC), Ahmad enjoys a good rapport with the Congress president's political advisor, Ahmad Patel, beside being a Muslim. Thakur is also an OBC.
A senior party leader and member of the All India Congress Committee, who did not want to be identified, told Business Standard, "The party will have to soon clear its line on whether or not an outsider will be nominated for the ensuing Rajya Sabha by election. There has been strong opposition from a large number of party members for the nomination of an outsider, despite his stature in the party and in society. Ultimately, we sincerely hope that a party member from Maharashtra will be given weightage."
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He said former minister Shivraj Patil tops the list. "Patil may be considered to checkmate rural development minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who hails from the same district, Latur, in underdeveloped Marathwada.” Deshmukh is currently in the news for his recent affidavit before a judicial commission inquiring into the Adarsh society scam. A former chief minister of Maharashtra, he defended his decision to approve change of land use in the controversial case, as also to relax domicile norms in the case of two army chiefs.
The party leader said there was every chance that Patil, who had to resign from the Union cabinet after Mumbai terror attack in November 2007, would be rehabilitated with re-induction in the Union council of ministers.