BOMBAY, 31 August — Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh stays — for now.
This became clear after Deshmukh met Congress party President Sonia Gandhi late Thursday amid mounting pressure on her to sack him from dissidents in Maharashtra. "He is staying as chief minister. The threat to his post has blown over for now," a senior Congress leader said.
Deshmukh himself projected confidence and brushed aside reports of disgruntlement within the party. "I will stay on as long as I continue to have the trust of my party high command, Sonia Gandhi," the chief minister told reporters.
He said while his party backed him, he was willing to look into any grievances that some colleagues may have.
"Any complaint can be looked into, but the chief minister cannot keep everyone happy," he added.
Deshmukh is struggling to put down a spirited dissidence in his party mounted by legislators he did not include in his council of ministers, which already has a strength of 58 from among the state’s 288 lawmakers.
Names of the Lok Sabha MP and defeated vice presidential candidate Sushil Kumar Shinde and Congress state unit president Govindrao Adik were among those floating around as his possible replacement. Observers said Deshmukh is buying time to stay in office and is buoyed by the fact that there is no consensus among the dissidents over his replacement.
They point out that the chief minister is no pushover and has learned the art of survival, especially since his Congress does not have a majority of its own.
Party sources also said Deshmukh has sent emissaries to Sonia to plead his case. Sonia has, however, stopped him for the moment from carrying out yet another expansion of his jumbo-sized Cabinet to placate the dissidents.
Deshmukh’s only consolation is that the opposition has been dormant — at least as yet — since its humiliating defeat in the June assembly trust vote.
