Removal of Maharashtra Cong chief kicks up dust

With barely months to go for an Assembly election, the Congress central leadership yesterday sacked its Maharashtra party unit chief Ranjit Deshmukh and appointed Prabha Rau, former All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and state party unit chief, to the job, in the fervent hope that the haemorrhage from the party would stop.

The announcement was made by Vayalar Ravi, general secretary in charge of Maharashtra. That it was not part of a bigger AICC shake-up that is imminent but was a standalone replacement suggests urgency on the part of the Congress, which is worried about its poll prospects in the state.

The party's poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls in the state made the change unavoidable. Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was here last week and had consultations with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Deshmukh, had convened an executive committee meeting to discuss the poor performance of the party in the Lok Sabha polls on June 26. This was ordered to be cancelled by Ravi, who also issued a directive to Deshmukh that he should not contest the state legislative council polls.

Congress sources said several senior party leaders from Maharashtra had complained against Deshmukh, particularly, his style of functioning.

In Nagpur, Deshmukh added a twist in the tale, claiming had been made a scapegoat. He said if the central party leadership had fixed responsibility on him for the Congress debacle in the Vidarbha region, Shinde and Ravi should share the responsibility and quit their offices.

"The first responsibility is that of the chief minister along with the in-charge of party affairs in state and PCC chief is the third person who can be held responsible for the party's poor performance," Deshmukh said.

"If Ravi is not replaced before the Assembly elections, Maharashtra will do a Kerala," where the party has lost all seats in the recent polls, he warned.

Deshmukh said he had met Gandhi and apprised her of the prevailing situation in the state and reasons behind the Congress defeat in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions.

"She in turn asked me to it discuss with her political secretary Ahmad Patel," he said. Eight former PCC chiefs, including former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh too had aired grievances against Ravi, Deshmukh added.

Deshmukh alleged that the Shinde government was run by a "remote control of NCP chief Sharad Pawar".

The NCP wanted to demolish the traditional Congress bastion of Vidarbha and had asked for Congress nominees in Vidardha who were "suitable" for them, he said and distanced himself from nomination process for Lok Sabha polls, saying four nominations of sitting members-- two from RPI, two NCP and one nomination of Mukul Wasnik for the Buldana seat was made by the high command.

Deshmukh said he had little say in the selection of candidates and thus could not be held responsible for the waterloo.

A coterie was working within the party which played the spoilsport, he alleged. "The defeat was due to a combination of factors like state government's performance, giving more seats to alliance partners NCP and RPI, caste imbalance, repetition of candidates who had lost earlier and neglect of the backward classes," Deshmukh said adding those outside the party were given more importance.