Meanwhile, TV reports alleged that more Congress and NCP leaders, including three former Maharashtra chief ministers, had links with the controversial upscale project.
The suspense over the fate of embattled Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan continued tonight with a high-level Congress committee that was asked to submit a report on the land scandal in Mumbai saying it would need "more time" to do its job.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, heading the two-member committee, met fellow panel member and defence minister AK Antony tonight shortly after his arrival from Kolkata and said he would require some more time to go through the documents and prepare a report for Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
"I will require more time to go through the papers and therefore it would not be possible for me or Mr Antony to say anything right now," Mukherjee told reporters after meeting Antony, who is also in charge of party affairs in Maharashtra.
After Chavan offered to resign yesterday during a meeting with Gandhi in connection with the alleged scandal in the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society, Gandhi had appointed a two-member panel to look into the matter.
"You know, Congress president has entrusted Mr Antony and
myself to examine the relevant papers and documents and thereafter to report to her. As Mr Chavan has already offered his
resignation to her, before she arrives at a decision she expects a report from both of us," Mukherjee said.
The formation of the panel was announced by Congress general
secretary Janardan Dwivedi, who refused to answer repeated questions on its timeframe.
Earlier in the day, Antony indicated that the committee would not take unduly long to decide Chavan's fate. "It will not take unusual time. It will take normal time," Antony said when asked to comment on the inquiry.
TV reports alleged that more Congress and NCP leaders, including three former Maharashtra chief ministers — Union heavy industries minister Vilas Deshmukh, Union power minister Sushilkumar Shinde and curent state revenue minister Narayan Rane — and energy minister Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP boss Sharad Pawar, had links with the controversial upscale project.
Deshmukh, Rane and Pawar have denied any links, saying they had not recommended any cases for allotment of flats in the 31-storey housing complex which stands on land supposedly meant for Kargil war heroes and widows while Shinde accused the media of making a hue and cry over the issue.
Questions were also being raised in the chief minister's camp as to how action can be taken against Chavan on the Adarsh issue when other Congress leaders from Maharashtra were also involved.
Chavan spent the day here meeting Congress leaders.
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