Nearly eight months after the twin towns of Sangli and Miraj in western Maharashtra witnessed communal violence,the Bombay High Court on Thursday sought a report on the flare up. The HC,which stated that investigation of riot cases are generally politically motivated,sought the report in response to a PIL filed by one Samit Kadam,a member of Jan Surajya party,seeking a CBI investigation. The riots,which let two people dead,have exposed the infighting in the NCP in Maharashtra. The arrest of NCP leader Mainuddin Shamsuddin Bagwan for masterminding the riots after being named by former Sangli SP Krishna Prakash,has brought to a head the rivalry between two of NCPs high profile leaders - home minister R R Patil and former home minister and current rural development minister Jayant Patil. With questions being raised about the motivation behind Prakashs allegations,the NCP is clearly on the backfoot. Sangli,located in the prosperous western Maharashtra region and known for grape and turmeric production,was once a traditional Congress stronghold. However,thanks to the growth of Pawars political interests in the region and the performance of the NCP,the Congress is on a losing wicket in the region. Though the current MP from Sangli (Prakash Patil) is from the Congress,the Assembly elections have seen the Congress influence on the wane. A major blow to the Congress was delivered in the June 2008 Municipal Corporation election, when the NCP formed a non-Congress Maha Aghadi of local parties and ended Congress rule. Jayant Patil had played a crucial role in ending Congress dominance in the area. In the run-up to the Assembly elections due in October last year,the political atmosphere in Sangli had been quite volatile around the time of the Ganesh festival in September. Hence,an altercation over the erection of an arch depicting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj killing Adilshahi General Afzal Khan culminated in a communal flareup. In the Assembly polls that followed,Opposition parties - Shiv Sena and BJP - made significant gains in the Sangli-Kolhapur belt. The Congress had to pay a heavy political price as the BJP and Sena milked the public ire over the Sangli-Miraj riots. Employment Guarantee Scheme minister Madan Patil (Congress) who belonged to the erstwhile influential Vasantdada Patil family,was defeated by BJPs Sambhaji Pawar in Sangli Assembly constituency. Similarly,BJP nominee Suresh Khade who shifted to Miraj after his traditional Jat constituency was dissolved,defeated his Congress rival Balasaheb Honmare. In Ichalkaranji,which falls in the neighbouring Kolhapur district,BJPs Suresh Halwankar defeated Congress partys four-time MLA and former minister for Textiles Prakash Awade. It was after SP Prakashs allegations against Bagwan,the former mayor of Sangli-Miraj Kupwad municipal corporation,on the eve of his transfer from Sangli to Ahmednagar on June 7,that all hell broke loose. Bagwan is a close associate of Jayant Patil and had played a major role in bringing together smaller parties to form the NCP-led coalition in the Municipal Corporation election. Bagwan who had initially gone underground,surrendered to the police on Sunday and has been remanded to police custody. Prakashs allegation and Bagwans subsequent arrest is being seen as a strategic move by Jayant Patils detractors within the party,since both the Patils are vying with each other to establish supremacy in the region. While Jayant Patil has admitted that Bagwan is a supporter,he has demanded a thorough inquiry into the issue,particularly the reason Prakash chose to come out with the allegations eight months after the riots. Tukaram Gawli,sampark pramukh for Sangli,said that the entire episode seemed to be politically motivated. It seems like the police were under political pressure. If the police knew all along that Bagwan was involved,then why did they not take action earlier? Why did he (Prakash) choose to talk when he was leaving this town? he questioned. Meanwhile,the NCP is trying to downplay the issue. While Home Minister R R Patil said a couple of days ago that all the accused would be brought to book,another senior cabinet minister accused the police of overstepping their mandate. It is a baseless allegation that the rivalry between Jayant Patil and R R Patil has resulted in the present state of affairs, State NCP chief Madhukar Pichad told The Indian Express.
