Maharashtra Sadan Bhujbal’s decision: Minister

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil on Wednesday refused to back former deputy chief minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal’s claim that the decisions regarding the construction of the Maharashtra Sadan were taken collectively and not by him alone. Mr Bhujbal had on Tuesday responded to the allegations that it was the infrastructure committee, the then chief minister and the Cabinet that had taken decisions on the issue.

While speaking to mediapersons at Vidhan Bhavan, Mr Vikhe-Patil said, “The decision was taken when Vilasrao Deshmukh was the chief minister. Though I was not a member of the Cabinet at that time, in the course of time I came to know that it was Mr Bhujbal’s sole decision to allocate construction work of the Maharashtra Sadan to a specific contractor.” He also refused to draw a parallel between actions against Mr Bhujbal’s nephew Sameer and state Congress president Ashok Chavan.

“The high court, which observed that prima facie there was a case against Bhujbal, had formed an SIT with the DG of the Anti Corruption Bureau and the director of the ED to investigate the financial irregularities. However, in Ashok Chavan’s case, the governor had denied the CBI permission to prosecute him (in the Adarsh case). How can the CBI approach the governor to take a decision on a matter which was turned down before,” Mr Vikhe-Patil contended.

He also claimed that he had not observed Chhagan Bhujbal’s reaction to Sameer’s arrest. He said, “I am not aware of what he has said so I can’t talk about it.”

He, however, argued that the BJP government was out to get the Opposition party leaders.