Bhujbal, Kripashankar don’t feel at Home

For the officers of the Home department, such incidents are not new though. They began with the transfers of police officers. Singh had complained that Bhujbal had not delegated powers to transfer officers to him. He had then taken up the matter to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, but to no avail. When reporters had asked him about it, an unhappy Singh said, "I get to know about transfers only after reading the newspapers."

The feud between the two came out in the open for the second time when Bhujbal announced a CID inquiry into complaints related to the controversial Pune land reservation issue a week ago. Singh questioned the propriety of Bhujbal in announcing the probe without discussing it with Deshmukh. "How can the DCM announce the probe when the Urban Development Department is headed by the Chief Minister?," Singh wondered.

Bhujbal shot back in his usual style: "I need not get his (Singh) permission before making any announcement!"

For officers in the department, the feud becomes a cause for embarrassment on occasions. "Often the HM-one (MoS for Home in the language used by the department) calls us and asks us what happened at our meeting with the DCM," said a senior police officer.

Singh is already in the dock with a campaign being launched by supporters of State Congress president Govindrao Adik for his removal from the ministry. They want Singh’s head for Ratnesh Singh, the minister’s close confidant, endorsing the nomination papers of Jitendra Prasada. Bhujbal will have the last laugh if Chief Minister Deshmukh buckles under the pressure and drops Singh.