Oppn leaders face the heat from BJP-Sena govt in M'rashtra

The political scene in Maharashtra has charged up with the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government  seeking to pursue corruption cases against top leaders of the erstwhile Congress-NCP Democratic Front government including former chief minister Ashok Chavan and veteran leader of backward classes Chhagan Bhujbal.

Two other top leaders including former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare too are in the line of fire of the new government.

Chavan, who is a Congress MP from Nanded, faces problems because of the Adarsh scam. Chavan’s role as chief minister is under scanner. In November 2010, he had to resign as chief minister. It may be recalled that the CBI chargesheet had listed him as an accused, while a Commission of Inquiry had accused him of “quid pro quo” and “political patronage.”

In 2013, the then governor K Sankaranarayanan had refused to accord sanction to CBI to prosecute him, but current Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao has allowed the CBI to go ahead against him, acting on the advice of the council of ministers.

The permissions and clearances that Chavan granted were in return for the flats allotted to his (now late) mother-in-law Bhagwati Manoharlal Sharma, his sister-in-law Seema Vinod Sharma and father-in-law’s brother Madanlal Sharma who were allotted flats in the 31-storey Adarsh building at upmarket Colaba area of Mumbai in lieu of favours done by him to the housing society.

“This is nothing but political vendetta  and my legal advisors would do the need-ful,” Chavan, however, has said on the recent developments. Bhujbal, a firebrand NCP leader, faces trouble because of the public works department scam involving construction work like the Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi and Kalina land scam. Bhujbal’s nephew and former NCP MP from Nashik, Sameer Bhujbal has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged money laundering case and now his son Pankaj Bhujbal, NCP MLA, is being probed in the same case.  Bhujbal’s role as the PWD minister has come under focus.

A division bench of the Bombay High Court had on December 18, 2014 set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising Anti-Corruption Bureau and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe the 11 specific allegations against Bhujbal.

The ED had on June 17, 2015 registered two Economic Case Information Reports (ECIRs) in connection with the same allegations under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The two ECIRs, registered against Chhagan Bhujbal, his son Pankaj, nephew Samir and 19 others relate to the alleged illegal transactions to the tune of several hundreds of crores of rupees under the provisions of PMLA. Between 2007 and 2011, Pankaj and Samir were directors of Parvesh Construction, a firm which executes redevelopment projects in Mumbai.

The ACB had registered three FIRs against Bhujbal and his family members, among others and investigations were in progress into the Maharashtra Sadan scam and Kalina land scam. The investigations are being conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and supervised by Bombay High Court.

Stir in political circles

Bhujbal, Pankaj and Sameer have come under the ACB’s scanner for the alleged irregularities in handing over the contracts to a developer close to Bhujbals, K S Cham-ankar, for three projects that the PWD had handed to the latter while he was heading the ministry in the previous Democratic Front government. “Neither me, nor my nephew or son, has any role in it,” he said.

As regards the Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam, Pawar and Tatkare are on the radar. Pawar is currently MLA from Baramati while Tatkare is an MLC. Pawar had caused a major stir in the state political circles in September 2012, by resigning from his post as the deputy chief minister.

His resignation had come in the wake of media reports on the alleged irregularities in the awarding of 38 irrigation contracts worth Rs 20,000 crore in the Vidarbha region during 2009, without seeking the mandatory clearance from the governing council of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC).

Pawar headed the ministry between 1999 and 2010 before he was elevated as the de-puty chief minister and handled the portfolios of finance, planning and energy. Tatkare has also served as water resources minister. The Shiv Sena-BJP – then in Opposition – had also alleged that the total irrigation scam was of the order of Rs 70,000 crore.

A government-appointed SIT gave him a clean chit and he re-joined the government. Later the Madhav Chitale Committee also probed into the irrigation scam – which NCP has claimed had not found any irregularities. The Bombay High Court is monito-ring the probe in the alleged irrigation scam.

The back-to-back Chavan and Bhujbal cases have brought the Congress and NCP together and their leaders had attacked  the BJP-led governments at the Centre and Maharashtra. All this is happening on the eve of budget session of the Maharashtra legislature – setting tone for what could be in store.

Besides, they have also found a reason and have fired salvoes against Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse for allotting a piece of land at Andheri in suburbs of Mumbai to actress-politician Hema Malini. But the opposition attack was blunted because of the scams during the 15-years of rule in which top leaders are facing the music.

In fact, Sharad Pawar, reacting to the developments has said: “I have seen other governments besides the Congress and the NCP. I have very closely observed the Shiv Sena-BJP government in 1995. But, in a democracy, I have not seen such a blatant misuse of power in the last 40 years.”

A senior BJP leader, however, pointed out: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the coalition would provide a corruption-free and transparent administration. We would ensure that the corrupt ministers of the past are arrested.”