A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi shared a public platform with the Adarsh scam-tainted former chief minister Ashok Chavan, the Congress party defended the move. The two leaders were seen together at a rally in Aurangabad on Wednesday.
“Mr. Chavan is a former chief minister. He has not been convicted yet. He is still a member of the party and cannot be ignored in a rally in his own region,” said state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre. When asked if this was a sign of Mr. Chavan’s political rehabilitation, Mr. Thakre said, “The party has yet to decide on what role he will play in the coming elections.”
The BJP said it’s ironic that Mr. Gandhi attacked their party on the issue of graft while sharing a platform with Mr. Chavan. “This shows the Congress party’s double standards, said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar.
Mr Gandhi’s appearance with Mr Chavan was all the more unexpected because it was he who had publicly criticised the Congress-NCP government for rejecting the report of the Adarsh Commission of Inquiry in December 2013. The government reversed its decision and accepted the report after his intervention.
The Inquiry commission had indicted Mr. Chavan for extending political patronage to the building. It had also said he extended clearances to the building as quid pro quo in exchange for flats for his relatives. Mr. Chavan has also been charged by the CBI in the Adarsh case.
Mr Chavan hails from the Marathwada region where the Congress faces a political vacuum, especially after the death former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. As a result, there is pressure from within the party to give him a role during the Lok Sabha polls.
