Anil Deshmukh: The man once wooed by Uddhav may face the axe this time

The polling for the Maharashtra elections in 1995 had been completed, and the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seemed to be within striking distance of power. But there were apprehensions that the alliance could fall short of the half-way mark. Hence, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s son Uddhav toured Maharashtra with a ginger group of Shiv Sena leaders to solicit support from independent candidates with a high probability of being elected.

Among those brought on board by Uddhav was 45-year-old Anil Vasantrao Deshmukh, who was elected as an independent from Katol in Nagpur.

In 1995, Deshmukh, who had launched his political career as chairman of the Narkhed Panchayat Samiti and later became the Nagpur Zilla Parishad chief, had rebelled after being denied a nomination by the Congress in favour of incumbent legislator Sunil Shinde. He was allotted the “spectacles” symbol. Deshmukh’s workers chose a unique way to canvass it with voters — they used the popular song “Gore Gore Mukhde Pe Kala-Kala Chasma”, from the movie Suhaag (1994).

The Shiv Sena-BJP eventually formed the government with the support of independents. The dapper Deshmukh was inducted as minister of state for education, and often made it into the news by trying to regulate private coaching classes. In 1999, Deshmukh joined the newly-formed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) under Sharad Pawar, and became a near-permanent fixture in the cabinet with portfolios like excise, food and drugs, and public works (public undertakings). He was dropped briefly as a minister in 2008.

The low-profile Deshmukh was not known as an ambitious politician. When Datta Meghe, a heavyweight in Vidarbha politics, quit the NCP in 2008, Deshmukh made no attempt to fill the void though they both hailed from the agrarian Kunbi community is an influential middle-caste in the region. “Anilbabu is a diplomatic politician and will never attack anyone at a personal level. This endears him to many across party lines. In terms of acceptability, he is like a potato, which is a versatile vegetable that is used across cuisines,” joked an acquaintance.

In 2014, Deshmukh, then the food and civil supplies minister, faced a shock defeat at the hands of nephew Ashish Deshmukh of the BJP. Ashish is the son of Deshmukh’s first cousin and former minister Ranjit Deshmukh. The cousins are not on the best of terms.

Ashish joined the Congress and fought the 2019 elections against then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, thus ensuring an easy victory for his uncle. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government came to power in an unusual set of circumstances and Deshmukh was a surprise choice for the powerful home portfolio, overriding the claims of many senior NCP leaders.

A BJP leader claimed Deshmukh was a proxy for his party bosses, who ran the show in his department. A senior IPS officer described Deshmukh as an “affable and well-meaning man who was not in control of his department”. Comparisons with Fadnavis, who held charge of the home portfolio as CM and controlled the police establishment through a clique of powerful officers, are inevitable, he added.

Home department sources say Deshmukh was unable to grasp the intricacies of factional and political loyalties among police officers.

Uddhav, who is now chief minister of Maharashtra, is facing increasingly shrill demands that he must sack the man he had once wooed for support. This is a fallout of the February 25 bomb scare outside Antilla, the South Mumbai residence of the Reliance chairman, Mukesh Ambani.

In an unprecedented, Parambir Singh, who was shunted out as Mumbai Commissioner of Police as a fallout of the Antilla case, accused Deshmukh of using assistant police inspector and former “encounter specialist” Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore slush money per month.

Waze has been arrested by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) for his alleged role in planting the explosives. The BJP has also attacked Deshmukh for turning a blind eye to a confidential report over graft in police transfers. Deshmukh has denied these allegations.

In the recent Budget session of the Assembly, Deshmukh’s lack of command over his portfolio was evident as Fadnavis attacked the home department over the threat case and the death of Mansukh Hiren, the owner of the explosive-laden SUV.

However, the charges are refuted by Deshmukh’s associates, who claim their leader has a “blemishless” career and a record of taking tough decisions like the ban on gutkha (2002) as minister for food and drugs.