Congress members protest against Vinod Tawde at the party office in CST on Thursday. (Photo: Debasish Dey)

The Opposition’s demands for the sacking of state education minister Vinod Tawde over alleged violation of election laws notwithstanding, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday invoked Congress president Sonia Gandhi to defend his Cabinet colleague.

Unconvinced, Congress MLCs threatened to approach the Prime Minister’s Office and seek his intervention in the matter.

While making a statement in both the Houses of the state Legislature, Mr Fadnavis, while reading out rules from the model code of conduct, said that there was no law that necessitates the removal of Mr Tawde.

“There are two parts to the model code of conduct. One is its constitutional enforceability and the other is of morality. In this case, the code of conduct is not enforceable. Now, if you (pointing to the Congress legislators) speak of morality, I want to clearly state that he (Tawde) has not violated any law. Thus, there is no question of his resignation,” Mr Fadnavis said.

Replying to his statement, Congress MLC Sharad Ranpise said that Mr Tawde’s name features online as holding the director’s post in a company.

“When the PMO has accepted the code of conduct, we expect the CM to take a strong stand on the issue and sack the minister. Since you are not willing to do that, we will approach the PMO and show the PM these election laws and ask him to intervene,” Mr Ranpise said. In response, Mr Fadnavis said that the code of conduct not only applies to a minister, but also to a person holding minister’s rank.

“I do not want to politicise this issue at all nor do I want to belittle anybody. But, while Sonia Gandhiji was the head of the UPA’s co-ordination committee, she held a Cabinet rank. At the time, she was also on the Board of the National Herald newspaper. But she didn’t resign then,” Mr Fadnavis said.

Following his comment, a united Opposition staged a walkout.

Earlier in the day, Congress and the NCP had created uproarious scenes in the Legislative Council objecting to Mr Tawde’s presence in the House. The Congress targeted the education minister for being director in a few companies, flouting the code of conduct for ministers. However, this issue did not have much impact on the government. The government managed to settle the issue of Mr Tawde with the CM assuring that he would make a statement.

LoP Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil raised the issue and demanded Mr Tawde’s resignation on moral grounds. The opposition MLAs also got in to the well, shouting slogans seeking Mr Tawde’s sacking, alleging that he had three Director Identification Numbers (DIN) when only one is allowed.

“Mr Tawde did not disclose information about him being director of a private company and as per the code of conduct he should have resigned in two months after becoming the minister,” Mr Vikhe-Patil demanded. He referring to Mr Tawde allegedly having three DIN when only one is allowed. Also, Mr Tawde is a director in Shree Multimedia Vision, a for-profit company, which brings out Mumbai Tarun Bharat newspaper.

Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said the Centre laid down the code of conduct for ministers in 1964 owing to which even Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi had resigned. “The chief minister should act if his Cabinet has a minister who has flouted the code of conduct,” he said.