Chavan offers to quit over housing scam

NEW DELHI, OCT 30
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was battling for survival in office after the Congress leadership took exception to his role in the embarrassing housing scam prompting him to offer his resignation.
Responding to late night summons from the Congress High Command, Chavan flew here today and met party President Sonia Gandhi for about an hour.
The meeting took place in the backdrop of three of Chavan’s close relatives having been among the 103 allottees in the 31-storeyed Adarsh Group Housing Society building in Mumbai in which several politicians, three former defence service chiefs and bureaucrats have cornered flats originally meant for Kargil heroes.
Fifty-one-year old Chavan, who was a surprise choice for Chief Ministership in December 2008, told reporters after the meeting that he had offered to resign. The party President would take a call on the issue.
Gandhi has set up a committee consisting of Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony to prepare a report on the controversy surrounding the building complex. Action on Chavan’s resignation would be taken after the report is submitted.
However, highly-placed sources said it would be a matter of time before Chavan is asked to step down.
That may happen only after US President Barack Obama concludes his November 6-7 visit in Mumbai.
There is speculation in the Congress about who will succeed Chavan. The names of Union Ministers Prithviraj Chavan, Mukul Wasnik and Gurudas Kamat are doing the rounds.
While Chavan is Maratha from Western Maharashtra, Wasnik is a Dalit leader from Vidarbha and Kamat from Mumbai. The talk in Congress circles is that the leadership is weighing the pros and cons of Chavan’s successor.
Chavan was summoned last night after reports emerged that three of his relatives—mother in law, sister in law and brother in law—were allotted flats in Adarsh Group Housing Society in upscale Colaba in south Mumbai.
Notwithstanding his press conference in Mumbai yesterday where he put up a strong defence on the issue and made a statement that his relatives have surrendered the flat, the party High Command was not impressed.
Highly-placed sources had indicated that Chavan’s continuance has become untenable in the wake of the scam and he was being summoned to give him a feel of how the party viewed the issue.
Chavan said he has placed before Gandhi all the facts relating to the housing society and that he had welcomed the CBI inquiry into it.  “Whatever the facts (that come out of the probe) should be made public,” he said.
He maintained that the land on which the housing society had come up belonged to the State government and suggested that there were other chief ministers who were involved in decisions taken on the project.
Defence Minister A K Antony, who is also in charge of the Congress affairs in Maharashtra, and Gandhi’s Political Secretary Ahmed Patel were also present when Chavan met Gandhi.
Gandhi was said to have been deeply upset over the entire affair including the fact that three of the chief minister’s relatives were allotted flats in the Adarsh Group Housing Society meant for the families of Kargil war victims.
Accompanied by his wife Amita, Chavan earlier met Congress President’s Political Secretary Ahmed Patel when the High Command’s stand on the issue was understood to have been made clear to Chavan.
Gandhi also held consultations in the morning with senior party leaders in which Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh was present besides Patel, AICC General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi and Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who also hails from Maharashtra.
Chavan had been involved in clearing papers for the upscale high-rise Adarsh building project in his previous capacity as the revenue minister.