Taking on Congress after their bitter split, NCP leader Ajit Pawar today said some decisions taken by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan will be probed if his party came to power after the polls and ruled out any post-election truck with his estranged ally.
The former Deputy Chief Minister also hit back at Chavan over his "law will catch up with him" remark made in relation to the multi-crore irrigation scam, in which the NCP leader's name had figured.
He took strong objection to Chavan's statement that the 15-year-old Congress-NCP alliance broke because of his (Ajit's) "demonic ambitions" and that law will eventually catch up with the NCP leader as it did with former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who has been jailed in connection with a disproportionate assets case.
"If that is the case, NCP will launch a probe into the decisions taken by Chavan in the last two months (if it came to power)," Ajit said at an interaction organised by a body representing reporters on secretariat and legislative beats. Ajit wondered why files related to Urban Development Department (which was under Chavan), which were kept pending for four years, suddenly moved in the last two months.
"As an ordinary citizen, I have sought information about the decisions taken in Urban Development Department through an RTI query," he said. The NCP leader asserted there was no question of law catching up with him in the irrigation scam because he had done no wrong.
"All files which were brought to me by bureaucrats in the so-called irrigation scam were cleared. Had I overruled them, then allegations of my complicity would have been understandable," he said.
He said the controversy started because Chavan promised a white paper on irrigation (a portfolio once handled by Ajit) after opposition parties cited different figures on the state's irrigation potential given by two departments. "The (then) Chief Minister should have said he would verify the facts and get back to them. Instead, he assured a white paper giving ammunition to the opposition leaders.
"In fact, when I was the Irrigation Minister, I had ordered two inquiries regarding irregularities in the department," Ajit maintained. Replying to a volley of questions, Ajit ruled out a post-poll alliance with Congress, saying the issue does not arise claiming his party will get a majority on its own in the October 15 elections.
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