New Delhi/Mumbai:
When Ajit Pawar announced his resignation as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, two political parties were caught off-guard. His own- the Nationalist Congress Party or NCP, which is headed by his uncle Sharad Pawar; and the Congress, with who the NCP has co-governed Maharashtra for 13 years now.
Both parties appeared to spend most of today trying to decode what Ajit Pawar really wants. He said last night that he has quit the government because he is tired of accusations that his decade-long term as Irrigation Minister was seeped in corruption. His party's leaders in Maharashtra, in a somewhat staged show of loyalty, met this afternoon in Mumbai and demanded that he withdraw his resignation, but said the final call should be taken by NCP president Sharad Pawar.
Meanwhile in Delhi, the party's second-in-command, Praful Patel, stressed that Ajit Pawar's resignation must be accepted by chief minister Prithivraj Chavan, who belongs to the Congress. He also rejected suggestions that Ajit Pawar's move aspired to unnerve his uncle as much as the Congress. "There is no question of any division within the NCP. It is purely led by Sharad Pawar. Ajit Pawar acted on his own conscience with the permission of the party president," Mr Patel said.
The same point was made forcefully by Sharad Pawar who said that all decisions on the future of the party and its ministers will be taken by what he called "senior leadership."
At their meeting in Mumbai, Ajit Pawar's supporters suggested otherwise. They brandished placards that borrowed the trademark slogan of the anti-graft movement led by activist Anna Hazare."Ajit dada, tum sangharsh karo, hum tumhare saath hain (Brother Ajit, you continue your fight -we are with you)," the signs read, rich with bodacious irony . Members of the movement fronted by Anna have spent months campaigning against Ajit Pawar, who they say robbed the state's poor farmers by spending thousands of crores on irrigation projects that never materialised. (Read: Ajit Pawar's resignation must be accepted, says Arvind Kejriwal)
Ajit Pawar, sources in the NCP say, has been waiting to prove his shape-shifting potential to his uncle. So even as Sharad Pawar said last evening that no other ministers from the NCP would quit the Maharashtra government, all 19 sent their resignation letters to a party official. The posturing was more for their leadership than for the Congress, with who the NCP's relations have been fractious recently.
The alleged scam that has benched Ajit Pawar is based on his term as Water Resources Minister of Maharashtra from 1999 to 2009. A state Economic Survey showed that 40,000 crores have been spent in the last 10 years on irrigation, but only an additional 0.1% land benefitted. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has asked for a white paper or financial statement to post-mortem the negligible returns on the expenditure. The Irrigation Department remains with the NCP and the party says that inflation, modification of initial blueprints drove costs up, and that the state's irrigation capability increased by 0.5%. (Read: This man was the whistle-blower in Maharashtra's irrigation scam)
Sources say the NCP blames Mr Chavan and his team for leaking information against NCP ministers as part of his effort to clean-up a coalition that been held responsible for a series of scams, including siphoning flats meant for war widows and veterans in a Mumbai high-rise to politicians, bureaucrats and ineligible defence officers. On record, the NCP says it welcomes the white paper on irrigation as a chance to clear Ajit Pawar's name. "The Deputy Chief Minister thought he should step down and give full support to white paper," Sharad Pawar said. Privately, party sources say nothing could be farther from the truth. (Watch: NCP divided on Ajit Pawar's resignation?)
The activists and the opposition BJP charge Ajit Pawar with these broad categories: they say he sanctioned inflated contracts to private firms who gave him kickbacks; he rewrote rules to give himself near-total powers to approve escalating costs of dams and canals ; when senior bureaucrats objected, pointing out that the consent of other officials was required, he ignored them.
Activists say that one of the most flagrant instances of his abuse of power is that in three months - between July to August 2009- he cleared an increase of 20,000 cores as the expense on 38 projects in Vidarbha. The opposition alleges that because the state elections were scheduled for October that year, Ajit Pawar wanted to milk his last few months in office to collude with private companies. Vidarbha, an area ravaged first by drought and then by farmer suicides, had prompted special financial packages from the Prime Minister; activists say this made it easier to push through irrigation projects in the region.
Later that year, the NCP-Congress combine won the election and Ajit Pawar then became Deputy Chief Minister.
Both parties appeared to spend most of today trying to decode what Ajit Pawar really wants. He said last night that he has quit the government because he is tired of accusations that his decade-long term as Irrigation Minister was seeped in corruption. His party's leaders in Maharashtra, in a somewhat staged show of loyalty, met this afternoon in Mumbai and demanded that he withdraw his resignation, but said the final call should be taken by NCP president Sharad Pawar.
Meanwhile in Delhi, the party's second-in-command, Praful Patel, stressed that Ajit Pawar's resignation must be accepted by chief minister Prithivraj Chavan, who belongs to the Congress. He also rejected suggestions that Ajit Pawar's move aspired to unnerve his uncle as much as the Congress. "There is no question of any division within the NCP. It is purely led by Sharad Pawar. Ajit Pawar acted on his own conscience with the permission of the party president," Mr Patel said.
The same point was made forcefully by Sharad Pawar who said that all decisions on the future of the party and its ministers will be taken by what he called "senior leadership."
At their meeting in Mumbai, Ajit Pawar's supporters suggested otherwise. They brandished placards that borrowed the trademark slogan of the anti-graft movement led by activist Anna Hazare."Ajit dada, tum sangharsh karo, hum tumhare saath hain (Brother Ajit, you continue your fight -we are with you)," the signs read, rich with bodacious irony . Members of the movement fronted by Anna have spent months campaigning against Ajit Pawar, who they say robbed the state's poor farmers by spending thousands of crores on irrigation projects that never materialised. (Read: Ajit Pawar's resignation must be accepted, says Arvind Kejriwal)
Ajit Pawar, sources in the NCP say, has been waiting to prove his shape-shifting potential to his uncle. So even as Sharad Pawar said last evening that no other ministers from the NCP would quit the Maharashtra government, all 19 sent their resignation letters to a party official. The posturing was more for their leadership than for the Congress, with who the NCP's relations have been fractious recently.
The alleged scam that has benched Ajit Pawar is based on his term as Water Resources Minister of Maharashtra from 1999 to 2009. A state Economic Survey showed that 40,000 crores have been spent in the last 10 years on irrigation, but only an additional 0.1% land benefitted. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has asked for a white paper or financial statement to post-mortem the negligible returns on the expenditure. The Irrigation Department remains with the NCP and the party says that inflation, modification of initial blueprints drove costs up, and that the state's irrigation capability increased by 0.5%. (Read: This man was the whistle-blower in Maharashtra's irrigation scam)
Sources say the NCP blames Mr Chavan and his team for leaking information against NCP ministers as part of his effort to clean-up a coalition that been held responsible for a series of scams, including siphoning flats meant for war widows and veterans in a Mumbai high-rise to politicians, bureaucrats and ineligible defence officers. On record, the NCP says it welcomes the white paper on irrigation as a chance to clear Ajit Pawar's name. "The Deputy Chief Minister thought he should step down and give full support to white paper," Sharad Pawar said. Privately, party sources say nothing could be farther from the truth. (Watch: NCP divided on Ajit Pawar's resignation?)
The activists and the opposition BJP charge Ajit Pawar with these broad categories: they say he sanctioned inflated contracts to private firms who gave him kickbacks; he rewrote rules to give himself near-total powers to approve escalating costs of dams and canals ; when senior bureaucrats objected, pointing out that the consent of other officials was required, he ignored them.
Activists say that one of the most flagrant instances of his abuse of power is that in three months - between July to August 2009- he cleared an increase of 20,000 cores as the expense on 38 projects in Vidarbha. The opposition alleges that because the state elections were scheduled for October that year, Ajit Pawar wanted to milk his last few months in office to collude with private companies. Vidarbha, an area ravaged first by drought and then by farmer suicides, had prompted special financial packages from the Prime Minister; activists say this made it easier to push through irrigation projects in the region.
Later that year, the NCP-Congress combine won the election and Ajit Pawar then became Deputy Chief Minister.
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