Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who tendered his resignation to the Congress high command last Saturday over the Adarsh Society scam, returned to New Delhi on Monday evening after spending a day in Mumbai.
Mr. Chavan, whose fate is being decided in Delhi, had a brief interaction with reporters here before leaving for the Capital. He refused to comment on any question related to the scam.
“I have said whatever I had to say in Delhi. Tell Delhi I am coming,” he told journalists.
While he smiled and tried to put up an easy demeanour, the strain from the recent developments was discernible. It prompted a journalist to remark; “Your face says everything.” Mr. Chavan dismissed this observation, saying, “I am relaxed.”
He refused to respond to the statement of the former Chief Minister and his bête noire, Vilasrao Deshmukh, accusing him of changing the bye-laws of the Society to include 40 per cent civilians.
Neither did he opine on whether a probe, to be conducted by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A.K. Antony against him, ought to be conducted against other Congress ministers involved in the scam.
Asked if he was looking into legal aspects of the case, Mr. Chavan said he had already examined them. “I have all the papers.”
On Monday, he came to the Secretariat around 4 p.m. and conducted two meetings — one with the Finance Minister Sunil Tatkare and the other on domestic workers. He said the Cabinet would meet on November 10.
