Adarsh review may not bring good news to Shinde

The report, rejected by the Congress-NCP alliance government in the state, had indicted former chief ministers Ashok Chavan, Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil, the late Vilasrao Deshmukh and Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

The Congress leadership’s direction to the Maharashtra government to reconsider its decision rejecting the Adarsh probe panel’s report could give anxious moments to Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

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The report, rejected by the Congress-NCP alliance government in the state, had indicted former chief ministers Ashok Chavan, the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil.

Of the four, only Shinde now holds a ministerial post and Chavan is an MLA. On Saturday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said he did not agree with the state government’s decision, implying that he wanted the report to be reconsidered.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday hinted the action was likely to be taken soon since the matter had been discussed at a meeting of the party chief ministers on Friday.

The former chief ministers had been indicted for their role in facilitating wrong clearances at various stages and extending political patronage to the building.

"The Adarsh project would not have come into existence without the political patronage it received right from the beginning," states the report by former Bombay High Court judge JA Patil and former chief secretary P Subrahmanyam.

"We are of the opinion that there is a nexus between the acts of Ashok Chavan and the benefit derived by his relatives in the form of membership of the society," the report states. It was submitted to the government in April and tabled in the assembly after BJP approached the HC.