A minister8217;s fall from grace

MUMBAI, Feb 4: Jagannath Patil the ex-tourism minister has said that his exclusion from the Cabinet was not entirely unexpected. With t...

MUMBAI, Feb 4: Jagannath Patil the ex-tourism minister has said that his exclusion from the Cabinet was not entirely unexpected. 8220;With the way the dynamics within the State BJP are moving, I think my detractors were only waiting for an opportune time,8221; he said, without naming anybody.According to insiders, there were specific directives to Gopinath Munde to keep out those known to be close to ex-MP Ram Kapse 8211; in whose place Pramod Mahajan was originally accommodated after he lost the last Lok Sabha elections. Disagreeing with this Kapse told The Indian Express, 8220;I think they had to remove him to accommodate Vishnu Savra who hails from the Adivasi community8221;.

Meanwhile, most residents of Kalyan Assembly constituency, which Patil represented, are happy about his being excluded from the cabinet. 8220;Forget doing something for the State8217;s tourism, he could do nothing about his immediate neighbourhood like the MIDC colony in Dombivli,8221; complained Vrinda Naidu, a resident of Dombivili. She had voted for himin the last elections, hoping that he would at least do something about his own area. Her husband added, 8220;if you count the six new liquor licencees from Dombivili during his new tenure then he already did a lot8221;.

Urban residents are unhappy about being let down on promises made to them even before 1990. 8220;Let us come into power and then watch,8221; he would tell people when he went around meeting them as an Opposition MLA during the Congress reign. 8220;People were promised that the acres of lush green land of the Thakurli power plant lying unused since decades would be developed into another Chowpatty,8221; reminds a BJP worker. 8220;He would make us sell this dream door to door when he contested from here,8221; he added.

Another project that he always spoke of was a direct road from Kalyan East toward Bhiwandi bypassing the congested main town square Shivaji Chowk. 8220;We could convince voters all these years that this was impossible since the Congress rule is around,8221; explains the worker who asks, 8220;but what can bethe excuse when we are in power and have a dynamic BJP man like Nitin Gadkari who is in-charge of public works?8221;

Even a minor issue like moving the Kalyan RTO which takes care of all the areas from Dombivili to Ulhasnagar out of the present premises in a residential area to the reserved plot near Birla College could not be tackled, residents point out. 8220;This, inspite of the fact that I threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike,8221; points out Kalavatiben Shah the local BJP corporator who contested and won on this plank.

However KDMC leader of Opposition, Dinesh Tawde of BJP, says that 8220;not everyone is happy about Patil8217;s going away. Ten of the 11 unit heads in the district BJP have handed in their resignations to voice their protest against Patil8217;s sacking.8221; The fact that the unit head of the 11th unit has not resigned assumes particular significance since it represents Murbad from where Patil8217;s bete noire, BJP MLA Digmabar Vishe, hails.