PUNE: It is said that politics is all about power and nothing is more admirable about party workers than their short memory.
And Vilasrao Deshmukh found this when he visited Pune on Sunday for the first time after stepping down as chief minister of Maharashtra.
Deshmukh realized that what it means to be when in power and when out of power. He found himself lonely as no Congress party workers turned up to welcome him, neither did the local Congress leaders, who otherwise waited for him for hours, when he was the chief minister till a few days ago.
The former chief minister was in Pune as a chief guest at a local educational functional. Except for Congress legislator Balasaheb Shivarkar, Ulhas Pawar and Mohan Joshi, no other Congressmen turned up to see Deshmukh.
Commenting on his absence from the function attended by Deshmukh, the city Congress chief Abhay Chhajed said “I was not aware of the function; otherwise I would have gone to see him.”
Deshmukh said “ I had accepted the invitation when I was the chief minister and I am attending the function after I have stepped down. But I came down to Pune for my friend who has always stood by my side through thick and thin,” said Deshmukh, referring to Ulhas Pawar.
“I’m in Pune to find solace. The recent terror attacks on Mumbai and the political developments that followed have been quite disturbing.”
Meanwhile, the Intelligence Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) sleuths had taken the DNA samples of the arrested terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab and his nine accomplices who were shot dead by the Indian security personnel in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in the last week of November.
The DNA tests were conducted last week to find out whether the samples matched with other in the security agencies data bank and were in any way connected with the killed terrorists.
