Mumbai: A political battle has broken out in Maharashtra at a time when the state is still trying to recover from Wednesday's serial blasts in Mumbai. The NCP has slammed Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's statement that ideally, Maharashtra Home Minister should be from Congress and not from its coalition partner NCP.
Speaking to NDTV on Friday, Mr Chavan had said if the Home Minister will be from Congress, the response to crisis situations may be quicker and more efficient.
"I don't know of any other coalition government in the country where the portfolio of Home, Finance and Planning are not with the CM," he added.
Here's an excerpt from the interview:
NDTV: Is there an internal contradiction specific to Maharashtra that a key portfolio like Home is actually held by NCP, your coalition partner. There can be potential areas of friction, that it's an area that perhaps Congress would want to keep for itself?
Prithviraj Chavan: Well, actually, this was the division agreed to by us in 1999 when for the first time Congress-NCP Government was formed. And that pattern, which we used in 1999, was based on the pattern which Shiv Sena-BJP Government had adopted in 1995. I think it was a mistake. We should have re-looked at it. I don't know of any other coalition government in the country where the portfolio of Home, Finance and Planning are not with the CM. But this is also a unique government where the two almost equal partners are running the government, unlike in Delhi or in Calcutta or West Bengal earlier, where there was a very dominant partner and a small party was supporting it. This is a unique coalition. But I think it is not a major problem. We both come from Congress culture. We split in 1999 for some reasons but the basic ethos of working...
NDTV: Is the same. But has it hampered you in this circumstance?
Prithviraj Chavan: There are difficulties at times. Decision making takes time. We have to take everybody on board. But I think this is part of coalition politics. I have worked in Delhi long enough to know that it takes time to get everybody on-board.
Later, the Chief Minister clarified that he had complete confidence in NCP leader and state Home Minister RR Patil. But that was clearly not enough to pacify the Congress' ally in the state.
Reacting to Mr Chavan's comments, NCP state unit president Madhukar Pichad hit back saying, "The Congress can just tell us that they don't want an alliance instead of making such statements. We can go on our own.
Tariq Anwar, General Secretary, NCP added, "I don't agree. CM has vast power and he can call any minister or any department head to discuss issues. I think RR Patil is a very experienced person and doing very well as Chavan has said. This is not the time to raise these types of issues."
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