MLC Sanjay Dutt asked to vacate seat for Maha CM

Mumbai, Mar 11: Maharastra Chief Minister Mr Prithviraj Chavan can now heave a sigh of relief after the Congress high command asked Member of the Legislative Council Sanjay Dutt on Mar 10 to relinquish his post for the CM, reported a newspaper.

Mr Dutt, a leader of the Congress party is expected to resign on Mar 11.

Chavan, known in the political circles as a man of impeccable integrity has of late been found on the wrong side of various scandals and thus the decision acquires importance as the party has always asked its tainted politicians to quit from their posts. So it appears that Chavan, for the moment can take it easy.

Chavan who replaced Ashok Chavan as the chief minister of Maharastra in the wake of the Adarsh housing society scam, needs to make it to the state Legislature before May 11, 2011.

The Hindustan Times reported the Congress' decision to ask Dutt to vacate his seat and quoted an anoymous party leader as saying, “The high command gave Chavan a mandate for cleansing things as the new CM. But recent controversies created doubts about him as well..Thursday"s(Mar 10) development indicates that the party president wants to protect him."

Chavan got dragged in to the controversy surrounding the appointment of P J Thomas as CVC, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in the Rajya Sabha that the CM then the Minister-in-Charge of Personnel Department had short-listed Thomas. In his defence, Chavan said that the Kerala government had recommended Thomas' name, a claim that was later denied by the state CM V S Achutanandan.

On Mar 10, after his meeting with party President Sonia Gandhi, Chavan was quoted by the Times of India as saying, "I did not say Kerala government cleared Thomas. I only said the state appointed him chief secretary..I think after what the Prime Minister said, there is no need to add anything."

OneIndia News