Dent in Credibility: Just 7 months into govt, his ministers put CM in a spot

The haste with which Fadnavis chose to give a clean chit to some of his cabinet colleagues based on prima facie information is also now being debated within the party and outside. While NCP president, Sharad Pawar described the latest developments as an outcome of intra-party conflicts, state opposition leader, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil wondered how Fadnavis could issue a clean chit to some of his ministers without a probe.

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The list of BJP ministers who have courted controversy in the short tenure of this government is a long one.

Minister for Women and Child Development Pankaja Munde, is facing charges of corruption in awarding contracts worth Rs 206 crore without electronic tendering, which is supposed to be far more transparent. The supply of substandard “chikki” (a sweet) to poor school children has left the government red-faced with many within the party and outside questioning as to why the minister did not exercise caution before rushing to approve contracts just to ensure that Central funds did not lapse.

Another cabinet colleague- Minister for Education, Vinod Tawde is also embroiled in a controversy related to his engineering degree from Dnyaneshwar University in Pune- which was never recognised by the government. Tawde is now being dubbed by his opponents as a “Class 12 pass mantri”.

Minister for Energy, Chandrashekar Bawankule too had stoked a controversy for making a telephone call to an official to set private sand miners free. Earlier, Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation Babanrao Lonikar invited criticism for providing conflicting information about his educational qualifications in his affidavit filed during elections last year.

While Munde, Tawde, Bawankule and Lonikar have repeatedly said they have not done anything wrong, many within the party have begun to ask the question, “Can there be smoke without fire?”

According to the old guards in BJP, the larger than life images of some of the party leaders, their ambitions coupled with the failure to take responsibility is bound to land the government in trouble as is the case now.

Tawde has however clarified he never lied about his degree or the university while Munde has maintained that there was no violation of rules in contract or quality. Bawankule denies any favour to private sand miners, while Lonikar has said that he had stated facts about his education. According to a senior BJP leader, “A power tussle among cabinet ministers is not a secret. Such developments would further create a wedge within the cabinet. And it would be a litmus test for Fadnavis who would have to go the extra mile to restore the image of the government and unite the team.”

Three-term MLA, Raj Purohit’s outburst in a private conversation taped in a video sting operation was a pointer to the state of affairs in the party. Purohit slammed everyone starting from Prime minister, Narendra Modi to the RSS to indicate how those with “money power “were able to influence decision making in the party.

Party insiders concede that Purohit’s statements (if true) show what individuals think of the top leaders when their ambitions are not fulfilled. At a time when the Anti-Corruption Bureau is investigating corruption charges against senior NCP leaders, Chhagan Bhujbal, Ajit Pawar, Sunil Tatkare, the spotlight is now bound to be on BJP ministers.