Chavan praised for 'rising' to occasion

He was with union Home Minister P Chidambaram when the latter addressed a press-conference in the city in the morning and then held a series of meetings with his top officials all through the day.

In the toughest time of his nine-month career as Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Chavan did his best to avoid the fate of one of his predecessors Vilas Rao Deshmukh, who, after the 26/11 attacks, had to quit as the centre was unhappy over his handling of the terror aftermath.  The then Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who is also from Maharashtra, also quit.

Chavan’s efforts seemed to have gone down favourably with the high command, as he was applauded by the Prime Minister, who, talking to the media after visiting patients at the J J Hospital, said that the state government has risen to the occasion.  

The Chief Minister had earlier briefed Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport soon after they arrived in the city in the evening. Some BJP activists however booed Chavan and raised slogans demanding his resignation, when he went to KEM Hospital to meet some of the victims.

Chavan resigned as Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office in November 2010 to take over as Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He succeeded Ashok Chavan, who had to step down in the wake of the Adarsh Housing Society scam. Till the serial blasts rocked the city on Wednesday, the agitation against proposed nuclear power plant in Jaitapur in Ratnagiri district of the State was the only major crisis Chavan had to face as Chief Minister.

Though Chavan might have managed to scrape through the test, daggers may soon be out against his Home Minister R R Patil – a stalwart of the NCP, which shares power with the Congress in Maharashtra.

Patil too had to quit soon after 26/11 as he had sought to play down the terrorist attack stating: “Such incidents do happen in big cities”. He, however, returned as Home Minister after the Congress and NCP were voted back to power for the third time in 2009 State Assembly polls.