He denied that pressure from the Congress’ coalition partner, the NCP, was responsible for his ouster. “In a democracy, it is necessary to respect the anguish, anger and insecurity of the people,” Deshmukh told mediapersons on Thursday before submitting his resignation to Governor S C Jamir. He added he was resigning after owning moral responsibility as the head of the state for the attacks.
Asked if his “love for Bollywood” (taking along actor son Riteish and Varma) had led to his ouster, a visibly crestfallen Deshmukh, who lacked his characteristic casualness, said it was an “unfortunate happening”. “It was a mistake, I feel sorry about it,” he said, adding he regretted the incident (attacks) which had led to a loss of life for many people and the feeling that he could not protect them would also lie at the “bottom of his heart”.
Deshmukh, who was accompanied by state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre and working president Jaywantrao Awale, said he “did not think” that NCP president and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was responsible in pressurising the Congress to force his resignation.
“The Congress does not work under pressure,” he said, adding the Congress had not forced the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R R Patil.
Maintaining that there was a need for introspection, Deshmukh said there was a “lot of scope for improvement” in the security and intelligence systems. “These things will definitely affect the ruling party,” he added.
On questions being raised on Union Defence Minister and state Congress in-charge A K Antony announcing Deshmukh’s resignation as accepted after meeting Pawar on Wednesday, Deshmukh said the Congress president Sonia Gandhi had informed him about the decision even before Antony met Pawar.
Claiming it was a “matter of satisfaction” that he was not being forced out due to any “blots” on his political career like corruption, strictures and unpopularity, he said the decision to resign was a “personal one” and had not been forced by the party.
Asserting that his tenure had seen the state get the highest amount of FDI and SEZs, Deshmukh, however, admitted that they had been unable to make Maharashtra “self-reliant” in the power sector. The party was free to utilise him in any responsibility that they wanted to in the future, he said, evading direct queries to whether he would contest the next Lok Sabha elections.