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Maharashtra Chief Minister Chavan's resignation accepted
Tuesday November 09, 2010 12:34:51 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi/Mumbai:
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan Tuesday stepped down after
the Congress leadership accepted his resignation following
allegations of his connections with the Adarsh housing scam.
Chavan, who had offered to quit last week, submitted his
resignation to Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan who asked
him to continue till a successor was appointed.
"Pending inquiry, his offer of resignation has been accepted. He
has been asked to tender his resignation to Maharashtra governor
(K. Sankaranarayanan)," Congress general secretary Janardan
Dwivedi told IANS in the national capital.
Party insiders added that Chavan had offered to quit last week
when he met top leaders in the national capital.
"He had offered to quit last week during his meeting with top
leaders in New Delhi. His offer has been accepted," sources told
IANS.
It is learnt that Chavan had offered to resign Oct 30 when Chavan
met Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Gandhi had constituted a two-member team comprising Defence
Minister A.K. Antony and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to
probe the allotment of Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society flats in
Mumbai, originally meant for families of soldiers killed in the
1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan, to politicians, bureaucrats
and military officials.
Congress said soon a new leader would soon be named to head the
state, ruled by a Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
coalition.
"This is the high principle stand and this is what never happens
in any other party. We have an established procedure in these
circumstances. A new leader will be elected. It is an obvious
process against anybody found guilty and anybody against whom any
inquiry in pending," said Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan.
A team of central party observers is expected to reach Mumbai
later Tuesday and a meeting of Congress legislators is being
called in the night around 10 p.m. to decide on Chavan's
successor, party insiders in Mumbai said.
Though no clear indications are available on Chavan's successor,
several names are doing the rounds - these include union Power
Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Minister of State in the Prime
Minister's Office (PMO) Prithviraj Chavan and prominent
Maharashtra leaders like Narayan Rane, Balasaheb Thorat and
Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, sources said.
The decision to accept Chavan's resignation came hours before the
start of the winter session of parliament and is being seen in
political circles as an attempt to take the sting out of the
attack by opposition on the government concerning Adarsh society
bunglings.
The opposition, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the
Left, have decided to make corruption the main issue during the
session.
Chavan had come under the scanner in the Adarsh society scam after
questions were raised on his role as revenue minister and
revelations that one of the flats was owned by his mother-in-law.
Names of some of his other relatives had also cropped up as
beneficiaries of flats.
Party sources said a reason for Chavan's resignation not being
accepted earlier was the visit of US President Barack Obama who
was to start his first official trip to the country from Mumbai.
The BJP said they will wait for the report of the committee to
react.
"It is the beginning … let the inquiry be complete. If the land
was for defence and allotted for Kargil widows, then it is a very
serious thing. We will see the committee report and will
definitely react after we go into the root of it," said BJP
spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
The NCP said no action is planned against state Home Minister R.R.
Patil, whose name also figured in the scam.
"Everybody knows about the honesty and transparency of R.R. Patil
that is beyond an iota of doubt. There is no question of any
action or effect of this removal of Chavan on him," said D.P.
Tripathi, NCP spokesperson.
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