'Some BJP MLAs are keen on joining Sharad Pawar's NCP'

Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday claimed that some Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs are keen on joining the Nationalist Congress Party-SP.

He said the "switch" to the Sharad Pawar-led outfit has started in the form of ex-corporators, referring to the resignation of Ajit Pawar-led NCP's Pimpri-Chinchwad unit chief Ajit Gavhane and two former corporators.

Gavhane had said on Wednesday that they would seek the blessing of Sharad Pawar.

Speaking to reporters after a press conference in Nagpur, the senior NCP-SP leader claimed that some MLAs from the BJP are also interested in being a part of his party as they are “disappointed after not getting representation in the government”.

“MLAs from the NCP (headed by Ajit Pawar) will also return. However, Sharad Pawar will decide who will be taken into NCP-SP,” he said.

Asked if Ajit Pawar is one among them, Deshmukh said, “He is making his own party. Let him expand it.”

Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday that a decision on the potential entry of any leader in his party will be a collective one, refusing to confirm whether Ajit Pawar will be accommodated if he chooses to return.

Ajit Pawar split the NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar, in July 2023 when he led some MLAs loyal to him to join the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government, also comprising the Shiv Sena and BJP.

Speculations about unrest in the Ajit Pawar camp started doing rounds after the NCP led by him lost three of the four seats it contested in recent Lok Sabha elections. By contrast, the NCP-SP won 8 out of 10 constituencies it contested in alliance with Congress and Shiv Sena-UBT.

Addressing a press conference in Nagpur, Deshmukh on Thursday asked the state government to make public the report of a commission that probed into bribery allegations against him and warned that he would move court if it didn't happen.

He leader accused the Maharashtra government of internationally holding back the report of the Chandiwal Commission, which he claimed has given him the clean chit.

The NCP-SP leader told reporters here that former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had levelled allegations against him when he was the state's home minister following which he himself had asked the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to initiate an inquiry.

The state had formed a commission under Retd Justice Kailash Chandiwal, which submitted a 1,400-page report after 11 months two years ago, he said.

“Despite several requests, the report has neither been made public nor placed before the state legislature so far,” said Deshmukh.

He claimed that several newspapers in Maharashtra had reported that the Chandiwal Commission had cleared him of any wrongdoing.

“The government is purposely delaying in making it public as I have got the clean chit from the commission,” he said.

Deshmukh asked the government to bring the Chandiwal Commission report into the public domain and warned that he would be left with no other option but to approach the court if the state failed to do it.

Param Bir Singh was the Mumbai police commissioner when an explosives-laden SUV was found parked near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's residence ‘Antilia' in south Mumbai in February 2021. He had alleged that Deshmukh, then home minister, had asked police officers to collect Rs 100 crore every month from bars and restaurants in the city.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also launched probes into the allegations made against Deshmukh by Singh.

The ED first arrested Deshmukh in November 2021 in an alleged money-laundering case. The CBI formally arrested him in April 2022. He is currently out on bail.