Tale of axing Chief Ministers

Since last 12 years Sonia Gandhi removed two chief ministers. The first victim was A K Antony, then Vilasrao Deshmukh, and now Ashok Chavan, if he is removed from the coveted post

IF MAHARASHTRA chief minister Ashok (Rao) Chavan, facing various corruption charges, is removed from the coveted position, he would be the third chief minister, who faces the axe from All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi. However, sources close to her says that she is very cautious while making decisions and always took advices from senior leaders and political advisers, and now of course, her son and general secretary Rahul Gandhi. It may be recalled that she has removed only two chief ministers in the past 12 years during her tenure: the first one is now Union defense minister A K Antony from Kerala once, and Union industries minister Vilasrao Deshmukh from Maharashtra twice.

However, she was reluctant removing chief ministers, such as Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Sheila Dikshit and Amarinder Singh, but she chose to stick with them, even though there were strong campaigns against them by their political rivals, within the party.

As usual, close friends and aides in Congress all of a sudden left Ashok Chavan, son of S B who was a Union home minister, and one of the close associate of Gandhi family, after the controversy over a high-rise building, Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society in Mumbai’s posh area. The controversial 31-storey building was apparently planned for Kargil widows but was allotted to bureaucrats, defence officers, politicians, well-connected people, read as lobbyists and political power brokers. Surprisingly, the beneficiaries include senior leaders from all political parties, including Shiv Sena and Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

According to sources in AICC Chavan would definitely have to go if the investigations uncovered any wrongdoing on his part. Soon after a press conference held at his official residence Varsha, the chief minister was summoned by non other than Sonia and met the party leadership, to explain his part.

The mood in the party seems to have turned hostile towards the chief minister amid reports that five of his relatives were among the beneficiaries. Chavan’s role as revenue minister in the erstwhile Vilasrao government is also under the scanner.

What has incensed most Congress leaders is that the list of flat allottees contains an “S B Chavan” - which happens to be the name of Chavan’s late father. The name of the chief minister’s mother-in-law, who died recently, also figures in the list along with those of three other relatives.

“If these are correct information, he will have to face the music. There is no way he can survive,” a senior leader told THE VERDICT, revealing that the AICC president had taken a grim view.

Asked if Chavan would be sacked, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said: “A K Antony has said there will be a thorough inquiry. Action will be taken against those found guilty.”

Told that there was a strong prima facie case against Chavan, Tiwari said: “We would not like to shield anybody found involved. But we cannot put the cart before the horse. Wait for the outcome of the inquiry.”

His words indicated the Congress was not in a mood to brazen it out. Antony, the party leader-in-charge of Maharashtra affairs, may not want to brush the controversy under the carpet after having built his career on the plank of personal integrity. This is especially so because the controversy involves his ministry of defence.

The Housing Society, built allegedly on defence land, was originally planned as a six-storey building for Kargil widows before being mysteriously converted into a 31-storey high-rise for powerful people.

But the Congress high command’s dilemma is that the crisis has come at a time it had almost made up its mind to sack Maharashtra unit chief Manikrao Thakre for his indiscretion of talking “money matters” on camera. Coincidently, his son’s name also appears in the list of ‘beneficiaries’ of the high-rise tower.

In the meantime, the builders’ lobby, who has been always favouring Chavan begun lobbying in the capital, for obvious reasons, said sources.

If both the state president and the chief minister are removed at one stroke, the party’s position will weaken in relation to Sharad Pawar, who is always aiming to weaken the position of Congress party in country, despite his party NCP is one of the alliance partner in Central and State governments.

Relief for Kripa

NEEDLESS TO mention, why the BRCC president and allegedly most corrupt man, ever seen at the top of the city Congress, Kripa Shankar Singh is little bit relaxed. It is only because the corruption charges against the Congress CM Ashok Chavan is on the peak, as usual the media, put aside Kripa’s cases, including that of his alleged involvement in the infamous Koda scam. While Chavan’s mother-in-law was allotted a flat in the controversial 31-storey Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society in Mumbai, Kripa got allotted a posh apartment in the posh Hiranandani buildings, for his son, in CM’s two per cent quota, which is meant for the needy in the State.

Let us hope the Congress high command, if it believes in the ‘culture of the party’ sack the duo as early as possible! In the meantime, when Chavan told the public that “vote for Congress means vote for development”, for which the onlookers reacted, murmuring, development of Chavan’s family and builders’ mafia? The bosses at AICC should take a note of it.

The writer, MuraleeDharan Raghavan, is the editor-in-chief of THE VERDICT - of the reader for the reader, published by The Independent Media of India Group, Mumbai and can be contacted at: verdictweekly@gmail.com