The Hindu : Deshmukh, Adik summoned to Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 13, 2003

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Deshmukh, Adik summoned to Delhi

By Our Special Correspondent

Vilasrao Deshmukh

NEW DELHI JAN. 12. There are strong indications here that the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, and the State Congress president, Govindrao Adik, are being called for discussions by the party high command amid speculation that there could be a leadership change in the State.

The Congress sources confirmed that there was "some concern," but added that a change was not expected to materialise in a hurry. There would be "wide consultations" before any decision, if at all, was taken.

Mr. Deshmukh and Mr. Adik may be here for talks as early as tomorrow, but senior party leaders were not willing to confirm it. However, they did indicate that there could be discussions with the Maharashtra leaders "in the next few days" and that it was a "continuing exercise."

Apparently, both the Congress and its coalition partner in Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress Party, have become increasingly concerned over the performance of their Government and its image. The anxiety has been fuelled by the Bharatiya Janata Party's sweeping electoral success in neighbouring Gujarat and the encouragement that the victory has given to the party cadre and its ally, Shiv Sena.

The Congress is also worried that the BJP-Sena combine would try to communalise the environment to get political mileage and all its Chief Ministers are being given strict instructions to deal "firmly" with any communal trouble.

Apparently, over the last few days, several Congress leaders from Maharashtra, including some known detractors of the Chief Minister, have met the party in-charge of Maharashtra, Vyalar Ravi, and expressed dissatisfaction with the Deshmukh Government.

The discussions are also being seen as part of the exercise to tone up governance in all the Congress-ruled States, ahead of the Assembly elections in four States — Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland — in February, and in the crucial States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi later this year.

`Not that simple'

PTI reports:

Mr. Ravi said it was not "that simple" to change the leadership in Maharashtra as a coalition government was in power. ``There is no dearth of leaders. But it (change) is not that simple because it is a coalition government. We have to be cautious when we take a decision,'' he said, when asked if Mr. Deshmukh was not being replaced because there was no alternative.

The Maharashtra Minister of State for Home, Krupa Shankar Singh, a close associate of the Chief Minister, is scheduled to arrive here tonight. He is expected to meet senior Congress leaders tomorrow to apprise them of the political situation in the State.

Senior Congress leaders who have met Mr. Ravi or the party president, Sonia Gandhi, in the last few days include the former Chief Ministers, A. R. Antulay and Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar, Ranjit Deshmukh, Rohidas Patil and Patangrao Kadam, former AICC general secretary.

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