BackBehind aggressive posturing, NCP trying to buy peace with BJP in Maharashtra
The NCP is trying to ensure that investigating agencies go slow on corruption cases involving three of its senior leaders
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Mumbai: Even though it has adopted a tough posture against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government over its response to drought in Maharashtra, the opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is trying to buy peace with the BJP to ensure that investigating agencies go slow on corruption cases involving three of its senior leaders.
Key leaders of the Congress party say they are “unhappy" with NCP “double-speak" which they feel breaks opposition unity against the government on the critical issue of drought, said a senior Congress legislator requesting anonymity.
Maharashtra legislature’s budget session began on Wednesday with the governor’s address to a joint sitting of the legislative assembly and council. Several NCP legislators joined their Congress counterparts in raising slogans against the government during the governor’s address. But the Congress leadership in the state feels the NCP is posturing with the intention of striking a deal with the government.
“It may have been aggressive on the first day but the NCP is willing to lie low during the budget session if the BJP assures some sort of protection to their leaders in corruption cases," the Congress legislator said. Three senior NCP leaders—former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, former public works department minister Chhagan Bhujbal, and former water resources minister Sunil Tatkare—are facing probe by Maharashtra’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Enforcement Directorate over their alleged role in awarding irrigation and construction contracts during the previous Congress-NCP rule.
On Tuesday, the ED issued summons to Bhujbal to be present for questioning on 14 March in a money laundering case it has filed against him, his son Pankaj, and nephew Samir. The Maharashtra ACB has also carried out a probe against Bhujbal and the ED action is based on the ACB probe report. The ACB is also probing irrigation contracts awarded by Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare in the Konkan region. The primary allegation against Pawar and Tatkare is that the specifications of the work contract were changed after the contract was awarded to show cost escalation.
Another senior Congress legislator and former minister said the NCP had been “negotiating" with the BJP ever since the latter came to power in late 2014. “NCP’s flip-flop over several issues including drought and corruption scandals involving BJP ministers shows that it is trying to bargain with the BJP. In the last session when we proposed innovative ways to protest against education minister Vinod Tawde’s bogus engineering degree, the NCP backed out at the last moment. Their stand on BJP’s corruption depends on the status of probe against their own leaders," said this Congress leader who did not wish to be named.
In October 2014, when the BJP emerged the single largest party in the Maharashtra elections but fell short of a simple majority, the NCP quickly offered to support the BJP to form the government. Eventually the BJP and Shiv Sena negotiated a power sharing deal but the NCP’s overtures to the BJP indicated party’s nervousness over a possible probe against its leaders.
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