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Cong lands in a mess on land deal

The spate of denials, clarifications and volte faces over the last few days by Nationalist Congress Party's Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and Congress Minister of State for Home (Urban) Kripashankar Singh over their alleged role in the now infamous Pune land scam have only deepened the controversy.

Bhujbal stunned the Congress by ordering a CID probe into the alleged incorporation of 38 plots near Balewadi into Pune Municipal Corporation limits.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had decided to change the regulation on the land from commercial to residential.

State Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Atul Bhatkhalkar, at a press conference on September 14, alleged that Deshmukh was involved in a Rs 50 crore scam. Deshmukh slammed defamation suits -- civil and criminal.

Bhujbal's Diwali's cracker of a gift to Deshmukh blew the lid of the Congress and Singh accused Bhujbal of transgressing his jurisdiction in ordering the probe. According to Singh, the matter came under the urban development ministry, under the overall jurisdiction of Deshmukh.

No sooner did he say this, than Singh denied having made the statement.

Bhujbal too initiated a damage control exercise by claiming that he did not mean to cross swords with Deshmukh by ordering the probe. He clarified that during a recent visit to Pune, residents had complained that some influential people were out to terrorise them and were demanding money; hence he had ordered a probe.

NCP president Sharad Pawar had promised that the Democratic Front government would probe this deal. Sources argued that the NCP leader was out to embarrass Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the eve of the party elections on November 12. By destabilising the DF government the NCP hopes to snub the Congress leadership.

Sources argue that Congress rebels within the party and NCP have joined hands in the run-up to the All-India Congress Committee organisational elections.

The Congress has faced humiliation in Goa and given the pronouncements of V C Shukla over the chief ministership of Chhattisgarh state, a loss of a crucial state like Maharashtra for the Congress could be even more embarrassing.

Pawar's indication that the DF government would order a probe into the land deal may not entirely hinge on bitter rivalry with parliamentarian Suresh Kalmadi. The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi leader, who quit the Congress before Pawar was expelled in 1999, rejoined the party once Pawar was out.

Sources said that the so-called influential Congressman from Pune whom Bhatkhalkar had accused of exerting pressure on Deshmukh into taking the decision could be Kalmadi.

In this cat and mouse game, it seems that relations between the Congress and the NCP have taken a dip. With November 19, the birth anniversary of former prime minister, the late Indira Gandhi coming up and Congress elections due on November 12, developments in the state are being watched closely.

The BJP has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the affair and has expressed dissatisfaction over the likely outcome of a CID probe. Bhujbal's order could not have come at a worse time for the Congress. But for the BJP it has come at an appropriate time. The more attempts to cover up the issue, the more the government is going to be exposed, feel analysts.

Moreover, the developments come when Deshmukh is fighting a defamation case against Bhatkhalkar in the Bombay High Court.

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