Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan told rediff.com that the Congress party has not made any statement about not backing him after the Central Bureau of Investigation named him in a first information report filed in the Adarsh land scam.
"The matter is sub judice. So unless you are proved guilty, you are innocent," said the embattled chief minister.
In fact, a group of 20 legislators from the Congress party met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on February 3 and submitted a letter expressing their solidarity with the beleaguered former CM.
In a related development Abdul Sattar (interview soon), an MLA from Marathwada from where Ashok Chavan hails, told rediff.com that he has got the support of 40 MLAs of which 25 had already signed a letter expressing the group's wish to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Commenting on this letter of support Ashok Chavan said that they were his colleagues in the assembly and their letter to the chief minister only showed their concern for him.
"We have stood by each other. There is no party issue in that they had certain feelings and they conveyed it to the chief minister," he said.
When told that rediff.com spoke to one of the MLAs (Abdul Sattar) who had signed the letter and submitted it to the CM he feigned ignorance about this group's demand to meet Sonia Gandhi.
"I don't know what their plans and strategies are. I am not a party to their discussions. I don't know what is their next move," he said.
He said that the Adarsh land scam matter is now "sub judice" and he will wait and watch what happens next in the case.
Photograph: Sahil Salvi
