New Delhi/Mumbai, Apr 6: BJP and ally Shiv Sena yesterday gunned for Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh demanding he resign or be sacked over the Subash Ghai land deal row and his reported indictment by CAG on land allotment in Mumbai.
Deshmukh, the Science and Technology Minister, declined to comment on the “leaked” CAG report.
“I would not like to comment on a leaked report. Let the government table it in the legislature, then I will react,” Deshmukh told PTI from his hometown Latur, over phone.
The CAG report, yet to be tabled in the Maharashtra legislature, reportedly raps Deshmukh on the issue of arbitrary allotment of a plot in Mumbai to a trust founded by him, when he was the Chief Minister and allegedly holding on to it for four years in breach of conditions.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said he has got a copy of the CAG report and he would look into it and that the matter would be discussed by the state Cabinet.
“Deshmukh has no moral authority to continue in office. He should step down immediately. If he does not resign, then the Prime Minister should remove him,” BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters in New Delhi.
“His continuance as a Cabinet Minister is in no way justified after these reports,” she said, adding even the Supreme Court has rebuked the minister over the Ghai issue.
Shiv Sena too stepped up pressure for action against Deshmukh.
“If the CAG report in Parliament leads to a Union Minister being sent to Tihar Jail, the same logic should apply to the CAG report in Maharashtra,” Shiv Sena Spokesman Sanjay Raut, MP, told PTI, in an apparent reference to former Telecom Minister A Raja, who is currently in Tihar jail in connection with the 2G scam.
When asked about yesterday's Supreme Court's decision in the Whistling Woods case, affirming Bombay High Court's order to cancel allotment of land to Subhash Ghai's film institute during his tenure, Deshmukh refused to comment, saying the matter was sub-judice.
