R R Patil refuses to reveal nature of favours sought by Kamat

Mumbai, Jan 30 (UNI) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil today refused to reveal the nature of the 'illegal favour' sought by Mumbai Congress chief Gurudas Kamat, as alleged by him, even as the latter threatened legal action for making baseless allegations.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Patil said he was not bound by Kamat's ultimatum that he should make public the details of his allegations and what he had asked him (Patil).

''I have never approached Congress ministers for favour, leave alone NCP leaders,''Kamat had said yesterday.

''Everything is not meant to be revealed, they come in public light at an appropriate time,'' Mr Patil said. To a question on whether he was not responding to Kamat's allegation because of the threat of legal action, Mr Patil said,''if Kamat is an advocate,I am one too.'' Mr Patil said, ''What Kamat sought from me was political.'' While during a Television interview, the deputy chief MInister had alleged that Kamat was targetting him in election campaign because he had not fulfilled his illegal demands and also threatened to expose him at the appropriate time.

Mr Patil claimed that Congress would be the biggest loser in the Mumbai civic poll because of third front candidates and NCP has taken over most of the Congress vote bank. ''Congress is now feeling the heat and hence criticising me over issues which have no relevance in the Mumbai civic polls,''he charged.

Meanwhile, Congress sources said Kamat had held detailed discussions with a solicitor in Mumbai today and was preparing to file a Rs 50 crore defamation suit for criminal and civil liability against Mr Patil in Bombay High Court tommorrow.

Mr Patil accused the Congress of raising the issues of Khairlanji dalit murders and the Malegaon bomb blasts probe because the party had no issue of development of Mumbai. He said he had handed over the probe to CBI because of the demand made in the Legislative assembly and not because of the Mumbai Congress demand.

He said the issue of his resignation over the Khairlanji dalit murder probe was not raised by the Congress-NCP co-ordination committee. ''Mr Kamat has no right to seek my resignation. I am the elected leader of the NCP parliamentary board. If Kamat does not want the alliance with NCP, he should seek the Chief MInister's resignation, the congress ministers will automatically follow,'' he added.

UNI