Maha assembly campaign kicks off amid Deshmukh’s claims against Fadnavis

Claims about Fadnavis’ man trying to frame MVA leaders during previous government’s term raises political heat

Mumbai: Three press briefings in the last 24 hours set the tone for a bruising 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election campaign. Noted rationalist Shyam Manav claimed on Tuesday in Nagpur that he was privy to information that former home minister Anil Deshmukh had been approached to rat out against Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray, Ajit Pawar and Anil Parab while the MVA was in power. In lieu he would get protection from jail over corruption charges levied by former Mumbai CP Parambir Singh.

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On Wednesday, NCP (SP) leader Anil Deshmukh told media in Mumbai that Manav, a former associate of Narendra Dabholkar, was indeed correct in making the allegations. Deshmukh said he had been approached by someone “on behalf of Devendra Fadnavis” to sign four affidavits impleading Uddhav in a ₹100 crore extortion case, Aaditya Thackeray in Disha Salian’s death, Anil Parab in a corruption and Ajit Pawar for extorting money from illegal gutka traders. He, however, refused to name the mediator or share the affidavits given to him.

Within hours of Deshmukh’s comments in the media, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis refuted the charges and warned Deshmukh of consequences of maligning him. “Some leaders from NCP during the MVA government gave us few audio-video clips in which Anil Deshmukh can be heard speaking against Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and also on other sensitive issues. If and when the time comes, I will make those clips public,” he warned. “Me kuncha nadi laagat naahi and majha nadala koni laagle, tar chhodat naahi” (I never trouble anyone personally but if someone messes with me, then I do not spare them.)

Shyam Manav who was until recently working for social upliftment alone and is in fact known to Fadnavis, explained why he has decided to take a political stance ahead of the assembly elections. “When I learnt about BJP’s efforts to discredit the MVA government and the conspiracy to book them in false cases, I felt the need to step in and take a political stance. Yes, it is true that there is a case going on and Anil Deshmukh was accused of corruption by Parambir Singh but if you look at the sequence of events it is equally true that Parambir Singh subsequently changed his position and later claimed that Anil Deshmukh had never instructed him to collect money for him.” Manav claimed that Deshmukh, a consequential leader Vidarbha, paid the price for not throwing his MVA colleagues under the bus.

Prima facie, in addition to Parambir Singh’s charges of extortion and corruption against Deshmukh, there is another case against the former home minister for allegedly pressuring the Jalgaon superintendent of police to register an FIR against BJP leader and close Devendra Fadnavis associate for taking illegal control of a cooperative in Pune district. The Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation are prosecuting both cases separately, and Deshmukh was arrested for money laundering and is out on bail at present. “I told the people who approached me on behalf of Fadnavis that I will prefer to go to jail but will not take the names of these four in fake cases. I was sent to jail because I refused to cooperate with them,” Deshmukh claimed on Wednesday.

Fadnavis, while denying the allegations, said that Shym Manav was known to him and that he should have spoken to him first about Deshmukh’s allegations before going to the media. “It seems that Manav has succumbed to the political machinations of my opponents. As far as Anil Deshmukh is concerned, he was booked and sent to jail while the MVA was still in power and after the judicial process had begun. So, where the question of any political conspiracy?” Instead, Fadnavis stressed, it was Anil Deshmukh who as home minister had conspired to book Mahajan and other BJP leaders in fake cases.