Strongholds stay loyal to ‘corrupt’ leaders

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s voters not only elected more politicians with criminal cases against them despite a campaign for probity in public life, they also seem to have overlooked charges of serious corruption against some leaders and voted for them in droves.
Among the scam-tainted politicians who made it to the assembly this time with healthy margins are the NCP’s Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal and Vijaykumar Gavit though the BJP carried out a sustained campaign against them.
Pawar, against whom an “open inquiry” request by the Anti-Corruption Bureau is pending for irregularities in irrigation projects, was re-elected from Baramati. He defeated BJP’s Bal Gawde by almost 90,000 votes.
It is as if his constituents did not care that his name figured prominently in the Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam. Following sustained BJP pressure, the Congress-NCP government had set up a committee to look into allegations of massive cost escalation in irrigation projects. Even PM Narendra Modi campaigned in the NCP stronghold of Baramati to help the BJP candidate, but the people seemed to believe Pawar who said the allegations are politically motivated and he was not involved.
BJP leader Eknath Khadse is shocked by the re-election of the three. Former PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal, also facing the possibility of an “open inquiry” over irregularities in construction of New Delhi’s Maharashtra Sadan, was elected from Yevla in Nashik district. He defeated Shiv Sena’s Sambhaji Pawar by over 46,000 votes. BJP’s Shivaji Mankar came in third position. “All the projects were approved by a high-level infrastructure committee headed by the chief minister. All the charges are politically motivated,” Bhujbal has said.
Vijaykumar Gavit, who was with the NCP for a long time, won handsomely from Nandurbar against his Congress rival. He jumped ship to the BJP—which has been spearheading the anti-corruption campaign in the state—a week before the polls after the the state government, prodded by the courts, granted permission to conduct an open inquiry against him for rampant irregularities in the allotment of funds to the destitute.