Chavan offers to resign over Adarsh scam

Pranab, Antony to probe land deal; Shinde leads race for CM’s chair.

The controversy over Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society in South Mumbai today took a new turn when Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan offered to resign his post over his alleged involvement in the scam.

Chavan met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi and handed over his resignation to her. “I have given all the details to the party high command. I have told the truth and it is up to her now. The Central Bureau of Investigation will look into the matter,” he said. He also met Defence Minister A K Antony.

Gandhi separately held consultations with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Antony on the issue. Senior Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi said that a two-member committee comprising Mukherjee and Antony will inquire into the scam. The committee is expected to submit its report by October 31, and the party may take a final call on Chavan’s resignation at the All-India Congress Committee meeting slated for November 2.

The land on which the 31-storey building in up-market Colaba is built was meant for Kargil war heroes and widows. However, the list of the 103 occupants of the flats included Chavan's mother-in-law and two other relatives, former army and navy chiefs, politicians and bureaucrats. It was also alleged that they got the flats for a fraction of the market rate.

Gandhi is expected to decide Chavan’s successor after consultations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who arrives from a three-nation tour on Saturday night. Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is a frontrunner. Others in contention are Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Science & Technology Minister of State Prithviraj Chauhan and Maharashtra Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam.

The Congress brass from the very beginning was upset with Chavan on this issue. On his part, Chavan has consistently said that the land belongs to the state government. On Friday, he had announced that the occupation certificate granted to Adarsh Society has been revoked till the CBI inquiry is completed. Further, he announced that two of his relatives have given letter to Adarsh Society conveying their move to surrender the flats.

Similarly, some senior defence personnel have also decided to surrender their flats, saying they were unaware that the land was meant for the kith and kin of Kargil martyrs. Stung by allegations that its senior officers were part of a conspiracy to grab flats they were not eligible for, the armed forces have announced their own inquiry.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party strongly demanded that Chavan should immediately resign or be removed from his office. Addressing the media, Nirmala Sitharaman, the party’s spokesperson, said: "Our demands are clear. We want the Congress to respond. They have remained silent. We demand Chavan's resignation. The inquiry should be under a sitting Supreme Court judge. A party in power cannot just sit and watch, and do nothing. There are links between top generals and politicians.”

Chavan, 51, became chief minister on December 8, 2008 after Deshmukh resigned on the wake of the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai. Subsequently, he became chief minister for the second time on November 7, 2009 after the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party won the assembly elections.