Mumbai, June 09: In yet another indication of further widening of the rift between Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), senior Congress leader and union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Tuesday retreated that his party should go to polls alone in the state in the upcoming Assembly polls.
Deshmukh’s, who was formerly the CM of the state, remarks came in the wake of a controversy over the arrest of NCP MP Padamsinh Patil accused in the murder of Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar.
Padamsinh Patil’s arrest by the CBI has created a huge political storm in Maharashtra and the Congress now wants to straighten its account with the NCP.
Patil’s arrest has also increased pressure on NCP leader Sharad Pawar, who has refused to comment on Deshmukh’s remark.
“We are not in position to comment now”, Pawar said while trying to skip the question.
When quizzed about his party’s future course of action regarding the tainted MP and its possible effect on Congress-NCP ties, he said, “Investigations are on.”
The Congress high-command, sources say, is not exactly thinking in-sync with Deshmukh on severing ties with the NCP but they do clearly seem to be in favour of cornering Pawar ahead of the polls so as to extract maximum gains in terms of seat distribution.
And, Pawar has very few choices. The first setback came with its relatively poor showing in the Lok Sabha polls and even before his party could do damage control, the Padamsinh controversy has erupted – threatening to weaken the party’s prospects further.
Clearly, the NCP MP’s arrest has also spoiled the credibility of the state government since former home minister R R Patil and his successor Jayant Patil, had earlier given Padamsinh a clean chit.
The issue has been picked up the Shiv Sena led Opposition too, who are now going all out to corner the government on the issue. In fact, arrest of Padamsinh Patil had rocked the Maharashtra Assembly yesterday with the Opposition parties demanding resignation of state Home Minister Jayant Patil and Information Minister Rana Jagjitsinh Patil, who is also the son of the accused.
Senior NCP leader and MP Padamsinh Patil was arrested by the CBI for his alleged involvement in the 2006 murder of Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar.
However, four months after the CBI took over the investigations the case has taken a serious turn.
Patil has been booked under section 120 (b) for criminal conspiracy and 302 (for murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Besides Patil, the CBI also arrested two other accused – Mohan Shukla and Parasmal Jain in connection with Nimbalkar’s murder.
–Agencies