Congress: Won’t be cowed down

The Congress dubbed as “sheer political vendetta” the sanction to CBI to prosecute former Maharashtra chief minister and current PCC chief Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh scam case and warned the Modi government that it will not be cowed down by such “false” criminal cases against its leaders.

“It is sheer political vendetta. The Congress will not be cowed down by the spate of such false criminal cases against its leaders,” party chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.

Earlier, another party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi insisted that governor’s decision is “fully judicially reviewable” and is “legally weak”.

“Governor’s action, especially after such delay, amounts to review of earlier decision and would be fully judicially reviewable... It is fully challengable and legally weak decision,” he said.

The current mood in the AICC is to back Mr Chavan, who has not only proved his elective merit by winning the Lok Sabha election from Nanded but also relegated the ruling BJP to the fourth position in some local bodies.

Had the Adarsh scam been an issue, Mr Chavan would not have won the election and would not be able to lead the party, Congress sources said, indicating that the AICC cannot take “corrective action” under pressure from the BJP as the party’s own chief ministers — Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raman Singh and Vasundhara Raje — are facing scams in Vyapam, rice and mining deals.

The Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra is targeting the Congress-NCP leaders on the corruption issue with the calculation that this will help the BJP in the coming BMC polls and the local body elections. But it has not been addressing real issues, like rise in the prices of essential commodities, growing unemployment, farmer suicides, handling of drought and regional imbalances.

While ally Shiv Sena fears that the real agenda of the BJP is to split Maharashtra and it has been working on it after coming to power, MPs of the ruling combine say the CM is ignoring the interests of Marathawada, Konkan and Western Maharashtra. The BJP’s strategy to target RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Bihar election over “jungle raj” proved counter-productive.