Within 24 hours of announcing that there was no question of his resigning over the recent terror attacks on Mumbai, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister RR Patil put in his papers this morning. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh also appears to be on his way out.
Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has emerged as the front runner to replace Deshmukh at the Mantralaya, the state government headquarters. Names of state Finance Minister Jayant Patil and former deputy chief minister and present PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal are doing rounds as RR Patil’s successors.
An official announcement about Shinde taking over as the chief minister is likely to take place only after President Pratibha Patil, who arrived in the evening to meet the injured in the terror attack, leaves for Delhi on Wednesday.
“The person elected as the party’s leader in tomorrow’s legislative party meeting will be the deputy chief minister. However, it is not necessary the same person will hold the home portfolio,” Arun Gujrati, president of the NCP state unit, told reporters.
The NCP, along with the Congress, runs the government in the state.
Denying that the party had put any pressure on RR Patil, Gujrati said: “Even on Saturday when our national president Sharad Pawar had a meeting with the party’s senior ministers and functionaries, Patil offered to resign but Pawar advised him against it.”
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“But as everyone knows he is an emotional man and he was hurt by unnecessary controversy over his remarks. His lack of understanding of Hindi did him in,” he observed.
Deshmukh gave enough hints that he was on his way out during a press conference earlier in the day, when he conceded that he had offered his resignation to the party and was awaiting directions.
Defence Minister AK Antony, who is also in charge of the Maharashtra unit of the Congress, also told reporters in Delhi that Deshmukh had offered to quit and a decision on his resignation would be taken “after consultation with our allies”.
Deshmukh survived many storms during his current stint as the chief minister. After the deluge in Mumbai in July 2005, there was a hue and cry to replace him. Following incidents such as the local train bomb blasts in 2006, the Khairalanji Dalit massacre and the alleged failure of the Democratic Front government to prevent the farmers from committing suicide were also used to mount pressure on the party high command to remove him.
His bête noir and Revenue Minister Narayan Rane openly hoisted the flag of rebellion twice in the past one year. However, Deshmukh weathered all these storms.
In fact after his detractors like Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee
(MPCC) President Prabha Rau was sent as the governor of Himachal Pradesh and a person of his choice Manikrao Thakre was appointed as the MPCC chief. General secretary in-charge, Margaret Alva, was also eased out by the party high command for voilating party discipline.
Shinde has emerged as the consensus candidate due to his non controversial image, his vast experience of the . politics and administration as he was a minister in the state cabinet for several years and later served as the chief minister also. Being a Dalit gives an additional advantage to Shinde when BSP chief Mayawati is trying to make inroads in to the Congress’s Dalit votebank in the state. And he is also considered to be mascot as he delivered the party’s miraculous win during last state assembly election when it was seen as a lost cause. However, while the Congress-NCP alliance formed the government, the Congress seats were far lower than expected, leading to Shinde’s replacement by Deshmukh.
As far as Patil is concerned, it appears his infamous remarks ‘aise hadse To Mumbai jaise bade shehron me to hote hi rahte hai (such incidents do take place in big cities like Mumbai) cost Patil his job. Patil who was known to be media savvy was the darling of the electronic media and unlike Deshmukh, he was always available for quick sound byte.
After the Rahul Raj incident – in which a student from Bihar hijacked a bus in protest against Raj Thackeray – RR Patil said: ‘we will reply to bullets with bullets’; while replying to debate on farmers suicide he said in the Assembly: “we will skin moneylenders from head to toe”.These are just a few examples of Patil’s wit.
However Patil got flak from the union agriculture minister and NCP president Sharad Pawar for his creativity and was advised to reduce his interaction with media. “But old habits die hard”, said a senior NCP leader.