MUMBAI, July 5: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sharad Pawar, rushed to New Delhi from Pune this evening cancelling his earlier scheduled stopover in Mumbai, amidst simmering differences over the appointment of the new MPCC president. The selection of the new chief, following Ranjit Deshmukh's resignation, may turn piquant with the anti-Pawar camp stating that it did not want ``a Pawar loyalist like Deshmukh as the next MPCC chief.'' On his part Pawar had said in Pune yesterday ``We will have to make alternative arrangements (appointing a new state chief). That will be done after I reach New Delhi tomorrow.''In interactions with mediapersons , Pawar had said that Deshmukh was not forced to resign, but had stepped down owning moral responsibility for the defeat of the AICC nominee Ram Pradhan in the June 18 biennial Rajya Sabha polls. And following up on Pawar's statement that the show cause notices served on the 10 MLAs for backing independent Arun Mehta in Council polls was ``unwarranted'', theanti-Pawar lobby challenged his contention that the MLAs had signed on blank nomination forms as per previous party practice and had not intentionally supported Arun Mehta. ``If they merely signed on blank forms, why then did they accompany Mehta when he went to the Vidhan Bhavan to file nomination papers,'' they asked.Arun Mehta had resigned from the party to contest as an Independent in the biennial Legislative Council elections held the same day as the RS polls.
Yesterday, Pawar had told a private channel in an interview from Mumbai that the ten MLAs were not to be faulted as they had signed on `blank form' in good faith and the state party had used that in favour of Mehta. It was the responsibility of the state party, he said. Meanwhile commenting on the row, AICC general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra affairs Madhavrao Scindia today said in New Delhi that by issuing show cause notices to 10 MLAs in Maharashtra over the cross voting issue, the party was not ``targeting'' Sharad Pawar.
``Too muchis being read in this matter by the media,'' Scindia told a private TV channel adding that ``Pawar never had commented on the issue of show cause notices.''
When his attention was drawn towards the reported statement of Pawar that MLAs have done nothing wrong, Scindia said ``this does not contradict the central high command action of issuing the show cause notices to MLAs.''
The latest round of confrontation between Pawar and his detractors began soon after the defeat of former Home Secretary R D Pradhan which was viewed very seriously by the party. A three-member high-level team headed by Vijaybhaskar Reddy was despatched to Mumbai and based on its report, the party had issued show cause notices to Praful Patel, a close associate of Pawar, and Satish Chaturvedi, MLA. The latter has been suspended from the party's primary membership for not replying to the notice.
The actions of the high command are seen as reflection of the growing differences between the party and Sharad Pawar.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
