MVA turns two: For Pawar, the heat is on

An unlikely coalition of three diverse parties has put the spotlight on the state government on just one aspect: how will it survive the remaining three years of its tenure

On November 2 this year, Enforcement Directorate, the country’s premier financial investigations agency, arrested Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh over money-laundering charges. This was unprecedented. No home minister in the state has ever been arrested, on such serious charges.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chiefSharad Pawar. (HT File)

In a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray dated March 20, 2021, senior IPS officer and former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh alleged that Deshmukh forced a police officer named Sachin Vaze – then the chief of the crime intelligence unit – to “accumulate ₹100 crore a month”. Singh wrote, “For achieving the aforesaid target, the Hon’ble Home Minister told Shri Vaze that there are about 1,750 bars, restaurants and other establishments in Mumbai and if a sum of Rs. 2-3 lakhs each was collected from each of them, a monthly collection of Rs. 40-50 crores was achievable.”

Singh made these allegations days after being shunted out as the city’s top cop over his alleged role in the Antilia explosives scare case and in the murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiran.

In the portfolio sharing agreement between the three parties of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the home department was allocated to NCP. But, Deshmukh is not the lone minister or NCP leader in the central agencies’ radar. Three others – deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, rural development minister Hasan Mushrif and former revenue minister Eknath Khadse – have been scrutinised or questioned. The Income Tax (I-T) department has also conducted raids at establishments linked with Ajit Pawar and his three sisters.

It was Sharad Pawar who cobbled together a three-party coalition by bringing together Congress and Shiv Sena in an alliance, an impossible task till 2019.

Political observers said “BJP is targeting NCP” because it thinks Sena can be its future ally. Going after Pawar and his party, observers point out, could make the BJP feel that the 81-year-old Maharashtra veteran, who wants to play a role in putting forth a nationwide alternative to the BJP, may be discouraged. Pawar, however, has started retaliating by hitting back at the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in Delhi.

On November 18, Pawar said in a rally in Nagpur, “You (BJP) are spreading propaganda against a person (Anil Deshmukh). He came to meet me and said that the complaint has been made by the police commissioner. Until the probe is completed, he doesn’t want to stay in this position and he is stepping down as home minister. We will not keep quiet. You (BJP) have sent him (Anil Deshmukh) behind the bars and will be made to pay the price of every day and every hour.”

Political analyst Abhay Deshpande said both the NCP and Shiv Sena are under attack as BJP needs either of them to form a government in Maharashtra. “Both NCP and Shiv Sena are under attack as Pratap Sarnaik , MP from Yavatmal-Washim Lok Sabha constituency Bhavana Gawali, former MP Anandrao Adsul and state transport minister Anil Parab also face a probe by central agencies,” Deshpande said. “Both are the parties that can join hands with the BJP but are not doing so and thus are being targeted. Central agencies are more active in Maharashtra than other states.”

He said Pawar’s aggression against BJP also strengthens his purpose of playing a larger role in national politics by uniting opposition parties against the BJP. “The opposition parties are looking to unite and even though he is not being accepted as their leader, he is working as a convenor. Earlier, Congress was the main party and other parties used to play second fiddle. No longer. Today’s Congress is weak and not in a position to bring the parties together. Pawar has a major role to play in national politics in the current scenario.”

Apart from investigating Deshmukh, on July 1, the ED attached the Jarandeshwar Cooperative Sugar Mill in Satara, a factory allegedly linked with Ajit Pawar’s relatives on the grounds that it was auctioned at an undervalued price by Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank when the latter was one of its directors. Three months later, income tax department sleuths carried out raids and searches at the premises of multiple sugar mills and real estate groups, including those linked to Ajit Pawar, his three sisters and his son Parth on October 7.

NCP leader Eknath Khadse, too, faces an ED probe in an alleged money laundering case tied to a land deal in Bhosari in Pune. ED started investigating Khadse just two months after he quit the BJP in October 2020. Once a BJP heavyweight, Khadse is under scrutiny for allegations of graft and conflict of interest in the land deal.

In September, former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya approached the Income Tax department and ED for an alleged fraud of ₹127 crore. He claimed that Mushrif’s family opened accounts in banks in the name of shell companies that do not exist. Later that month, he accused Mushrif of committing fraud worth ₹100 crore involving the Appasaheb Gadhinglaj Cooperative Sugar Mill.

Political analyst Hemant Desai said the BJP is looking to break either NCP or Ajit Pawar by relentlessly attacking them. “They (BJP) started their attacks against Shiv Sena by targeting (MLA) Pratap Sarnaik and (the then forest minister) Sanjay Rathod,” he said. “But after Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray dismissed any possibility of an alliance with BJP despite being pressured by Sena leaders, they (BJP) shifted the attack to NCP. The case of Jarandeshwar sugar mill is a good example because it came to light before state assembly elections in 2019, but it was suddenly brought back to target Ajit Pawar.”

Desai said the BJP is succeeded in pressuring Ajit Pawar, who has been skipping political functions for the past fortnight or more. “State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil recently said that the change will come in the new year. It may be that the party is looking for a repeat of 2019 when Ajit Pawar along with a splinter group of NCP MLAs formed a government with BJP,” he said. “He (Sharad Pawar) never made such strong statements in the past. Praful Patel also said that they will again make Anil Deshmukh the home minister of the state. It indicates that the continuous attack has compelled senior Pawar to go all out against BJP.”

NCP’s national spokesperson Nawab Malik said the BJP thinks it can break NCP leaders by targeting them through central agencies just like it tried to do in West Bengal ahead of the state assembly polls, but added that “it will not work in Maharashtra.”

Malik said, “By misusing central agencies, they were under the impression that they would force our leaders to jump ship. They have used this strategy in West Bengal and many other states as well, but NCP has decided to fight head on and will not give up.”

In a rally in Mahabaleshwar on November 24, Pawar said, “The same is happening here in Maharashtra but there is no need to worry about it. Let them do all the probes; they will not get anything. However, they have set an example on how to misuse power.”

In response, BJP leader and former minister Ashish Shelar said NCP is misleading people and that if their leaders are innocent and are being targeted by the central agencies why is no one moving court. “Their allegation is an admission of their crime as they are not saying that their leaders are innocent,” he said. “Where there is a crime, there has to be an investigation and that is the reason NCP leaders are facing a probe. Even though they are making such allegations, none of the leaders went to court against any of the central agencies if they are really innocent. It means they are crying crocodile tears.”

Controversy is not new to the Pawars or the NCP. In 2012, Ajit Pawar was embroiled in a ₹70,000-crore irrigation contracts scam. Following the allegations, Ajit Pawar, who was then deputy CM, resigned from the state cabinet. He was re-inducted in December the same year.

Another NCP leader, Chhagan Bhujbal, was made deputy chief minister after the party formed a government with Congress in 1999. However, he had to quit the position in 2003 after his name was embroiled in a controversy over fake stamp papers involving Abdul Karim Telgi. He too made a comeback as the Congress-NCP combination returned to power in 2004.