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Rane sacks 5 independent ministers

Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane today sacked five ministers of state belonging to the group of independent legislators supporting the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance though they had announced their resignations earlier in the day.

A communique issued from the office of the chief minister said the five ministers of state, Shivaji Yashwant Naik, Anil Vasant Deshmukh, Dr Vijaykumar Krishna Gavit, Dilip Gangadhar Sopal and Tukaram Sakharam Dighole had been removed as they had lost his (the chief minister's) confidence.

Governor P C Alexander had accepted Rane's recommendation to drop these ministers, the communique said.

Earlier in the day, the five ministers of state, addressing a joint press conference at Deshmukh's ministerial bungalow opposite Mantralaya, the seat of government, in south Bombay, announced their resignation from the council of ministers.

They said they had resigned to enable members of the group of independent legislators supporting the ruling alliance to decide independently or collectively their strategy for facing the assembly poll being held along with the general election on September 4 and 11.

When the ministers were told about the official announcement about their having been dropped, which came a few minutes after they had finished addressing the press conference at 1645 IST, they contested their removal and insisted that they had resigned.

Deshmukh, who held the portfolio of school, higher and technical education, said they had sent in their resignation letters to the chief minister at his official residence at 1000 IST, after a meeting at 0900. Since the chief minister was away visiting the temple town of Pandharpur, their letters were delivered to his staff.

A spokesman for the chief minister's office, however, rejected this claim and said Rane had completed the formalities for sacking the ministers long before their resignation letters were received.

Rane, who returned from Pandharpur at 1300 IST, faxed to the governor his recommendation to sack the ministers at 1600 hours. The governor received the letter at 1605 hours at his camp in his home state Kerala where he has gone to mourn a relative. In the next 15 minutes, the chief minister received the governor's communication accepting his recommendation.

The resignation letters were received by the chief minister only at 1700 hours after he reached the government guest house Sahyadri, close to his official residence Varsha, to attend a Cabinet meeting, the spokesman said.

The independent legislators, with whose support the minority Sena-BJP government came to power in 1995, are sore that the government ignored their plea not to seek simultaneous election to the assembly with the Lok Sabha. The government's term would have ended in March 2000 in the normal course.

At the press conference, the ministers gave enough hints that they did not think it a good move to seek re-election in the company of the ruling alliance. The Sena-BJP combine had offered them support if they were willing to contest under its banner or as candidates sponsored by the alliance.

Most of the independent MLAs are known supporters of Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar. Political observers do not rule out their joining the NCP.

Deshmukh, Sopal, Dighole, Naik and Gavit said they would have broader meetings with the other independent legislators, including the five other legislators from their group who continue to be ministers, before deciding their electoral strategy.

The sacked ministers admitted to having been approached by the NCP as well as the Congress.

Before the official announcement of their dismissal came, they were also insisting that they had no differences with Chief Minister Rane or Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde of the BJP.

UNI

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