Thackeray will not succeed in his evil design — Deshmukh

Deshmukh said since the Sena-BJP alliance was not in a position to topple his Government, he was firm in the saddle as long as the Democratic Front –comprising nine political parties — was intact. “ If the Front is intact, we will complete the five year term. However, there will be a threat to the Front government only when one of the major constituents of the Front withdraws support to the Government. But that possibility is remote, since we have come together to keep the communal forces out of power,” Deshmukh said.

Deshmukh said the entire thrust of the Sena-BJP alliance is on splitting one of the constituents of the Democratic Front and forming the government with the splinter group. “The options being examined by the Sena-BJP were available immediately after the declaration of the Assembly results six months ago. Since the Sena-BJP alliance failed to form the government then, despite the fact it was given the first opportunity by Governor P C Alexander, I don’t think they will succeed now,” Deshmukh pointed out.

Though Deshmukh admitted that there was dissidence both in the Congress as well as Nationalist Congress Party, he, however, ruled out the possibility of a split in any of the constituents of the Front. “No doubt that a section of our legislators are unhappy, but I am sure they will not join hands with communal forces,” he said.

On the statements of NCP leaders P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar, the Chief Minister said initially, even the Congress was not in favour of forming the government with the NCP after Congress president Sonia Gandhi was criticised by senior leaders of NCP. However, mainly to keep communal forces out of power, they decided to form the government with NCP, he added.

The Chief Minister reiterated that immediately after the on-going Budget Session, he would reorganise the Cabinet and also make appointments on the state-run enterprises as well as official committees. “It will be a joint decision. Before making any changes in the Cabinet, all constituents of the Front will be consulted and adequate representation will be given to all sections and regions. In addition, the reshuffle will also be based on the performance of the Cabinet members,” he said.

He agreed that further expansion of the Cabinet would require more funds, but at the same time, it was necessary to have more Cabinet members for the smooth functioning of the Government, he added.

On the austerity measures, Deshmukh said since the plan size had been reduced, his Government would require less funds for the current year. “We have drafted a more realistic plan. The earlier government’s plan was so big, that it was difficult to implement owing to poor resource mobilisation. Ultimately, it had to cut the plan size at least by 30 per cent to make it worth implementing. We never wanted to face that situation, therefore, from the initial stage itself, the plan size has been reduced,” he added.

Deshmukh ruled out the possibility of curtailing the on-going Budget Session by a week. “There is no such proposal. Why we should cut the session, we are prepared to face the Legislature?” he said.

On the controversy over the multicrore Sahara Lake city project, Deshmukh said it was unfortunate that Opposition members were blaming him for clearing the project. Participating in the debate on the motion of thanks to Governor P C Alexander’s address, BJP member Gopinath Munde, who is staunch opponent of the project, had blamed the Democratic Front Government for clearing the project.

“From official records, it is crystal clear that after the Supreme Court verdict, the erstwhile Sena-BJP government had cleared the proposal and necessary instructions were given to the Pune Collector to process the file. When I took over on October 18, I had called for the files of all the decisions taken by the Sena-BJP alliance. After the scrutiny of the file, I found that since the file was cleared, it was beyond my power to intervene in the case. Under such circumstances, it will be wrong to blame me for clearing the proposal,” Deshmukh said.