The supercession of the board of directors of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank has put the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on the warpath with its Congress ally once again. The ruling coalition has not had a smooth run for a while and the last stand off was in the state legislature over the allocation of water to industry which the NCP was pitching for. The chief minister had to intervene after protests from Vidarbha legislators to give an assurance that agriculture would get first priority.
The NCP controlled apex cooperative Bank showed a negative net worth and has been on the radar of the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) since a while. However, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, on the board of directors since over a decade, has taken this as a personal insult. There is resentment right from the top leadership of the party down to the ranks at the manner in which the government has acted. NCP leaders have maintained that this is a political move which comes ahead of the local bodies polls later this year. The Congress was trying to weaken the NCP which has a good following in the rural areas of the state by discrediting the bank it controlled is what some in the NCP feel.
However, official sources said the Bank had high non performing assets(NPA)s and did not comply with RBI‘s modified directions. In addition under section 110 A of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Societies Act there was no need to give a notice as Mr Pawar has been maintaining. The Opposition has alleged that depositors were withdrawing money since a few months from the bank and named the six districts from where this was happening. Eknath Khadse of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has alleged that between Rs. 4000 crore to Rs 6000 crore was withdrawn by depositors as they knew what was coming.
The NCP is demanding that the Board of directors be reinstated to maintain status quo. At the state executive committee meeting last Thursday, NCP MLAs and members voiced strong protest against the Congress action and called for reasserting the party's identity and self respect. Some of them even demanded a retaliation of sorts on the Congress. Though the meeting was called ostensibly to plan for the party's foundation day meeting on June 10, people openly voiced their anger. However, senior leaders like home minister R R Patil and public works minister Chhagan Bhujbal called on party workers to go beyond the issue of the bank and concentrate on their work. For now, NCP president Sharad Pawar has tried to calm things down by saying on Saturday that there was no politics in the decision on the bank and the RBI had the right to take action.
However, the junior Pawar is mustering support for some muscle flexing and the party cannot really ignore the popular sentiment against the Congress. With the chief minister Prithviraj Chavan vacating his Rajya Sabha seat, there is speculation that the NCP will field or back a candidate against the Congress like it did earlier to get industrialist Rahul Bajaj elected to the Rajya Sabha with the support of the Shiv Sena and the BJP in 2006. The Congress had fielded Avinash Pande who lost the election. The Congress leadership is yet to take a decision on the candidate for this election which has to be notified, but the names doing the rounds are Suresh Pachauri, Shivraj Patil, among others. Republican Party of India leader Ramdas Athavale who has struck an alliance with the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) could be another contender for this election.
The Congress meanwhile has been at pains to state that the Bank did not belong to anybody and the action was within legal limits. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan did call a meeting of a few senior ministers last week where the Bank issue was among the things discussed. The Congress has 14 directors on the board of the Bank and there were other party members too. Besides senior Congress leaders owe the bank large sums of money. A senior minister said that the move to make the bank run on professional lines was imperative and the Bank could not be allowed to continue in this fashion.
Mr. Ajit Pawar feels this action is unjustified and has been sulking since the decision was taken. Last Tuesday he was scheduled to attend a function to inaugurate a high building for class four employees of Raj Bhavan but he did not turn up. Official sources said the function was planned a good 20 days ago and on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Pawar's secretary called up Raj Bhavan to state that the deputy chief minister would be late and may not be able to make it for the function. The weekly cabinet meeting did not take place.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Manikrao Thakre has been reiterating that the chief minister and the deputy chief minister will sit together and clarify all doubts about the Bank. He said he hoped that things could be sorted out through discussion. He said there was no danger to the coalition and the Congress and the NCP were very much together.
