The Rs 16, 924 poll 'scam': Will Cong lose Ashok Chavan, Maharashtra?

Failing to include an advertisement that cost Rs 16,924 as part of his election expenditure report to the Election Commission could cost former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan dearly, coming just when it appeared that he’d emerged from the shadow of the Adarsh scam and could play a major role in the Congress campaign for the Maharashtra Assembly election later this year. The case pertains to Chavan’s successful 2009 campaign from the Bhokar Assembly seat in Nanded, which he contested as sitting chief minister and won by a huge margin. Former minister and losing independent candidate in that election Dr Madhav Kinhalkar registered a complaint with the EC alleging use of ‘paid news reports’. Chavan moved the Bombay High Court and then the Supreme Court against Kinhalkar’s demand for a probe by the EC. [caption id=“attachment_1342025” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Congress MP Ashok Chavan. PTI[/caption] Acting on the SC’s orders, the EC has now said Chavan had failed to lodge his poll expenditure in the manner prescribed by the law. He could be disqualified unless he offers “a good reason” for the lapse in accurately reporting his election spending, the EC order says. Chavan will have to respond to the show cause notice in 20 days. While the case pertains to the Bhokar Assembly seat from which Chavan has resigned following his election as Member of Parliament from Nanded in May this year, but the disqualification will also apply to Lok Sabha, as well. According to a PTI report, a candidate declared disqualified under Section 10 of the Representation of People’s Act “incurs disqualification for contesting further elections to any House of Parliament or State Legislature for a period of three years”, and also for continuing as member of any such House if he is already a sitting member. The EC order clarifies that Chavan’s resignation from the Maharashtra state legislature will not stall or close the present proceedings, but there is arguably more at stake for Chavan than his seat in Lok Sabha. For his own part, Chavan claims that the notice from the EC is not about paid news but only about a newspaper advertisement whose cost was not duly included in expenditure records dispatched by all candidates to the EC. The advertisement was released by a person who did not take his consent, he says. He also contends that the EC agrees that the expenditure was for the party’s campaign, and not his personal election expenditure. “The issue of paid news is almost over now. The EC has categorically stated that the expenditure (that relates to the paid news charges) was for the campaign undertaken by the Indian National Congress,” Chavan told The Indian Express . The 55-year-old first-time MP has previously also pointed out to the EC that even if the Rs 16,924 is added to his personal election expenses, he would still be well within the Rs 10 lakh limit set for candidates contesting legislative assembly polls. The EC has apparently not taken this contention very kindly. If Chavan’s plea is entertained, it would be tantamount to granting a licence to all candidates to submit inaccurate expenditure reports, the EC order states. A report on I bnlive.in quotes the EC order as follows: “This would frustrate and defeat the very object underlying the provisions of Section 77 requiring the maintenance of true account of election expenses and of section 10A of the 1951 Act providing for disqualification for filing an incorrect or false account.” The tenor of the EC order signals that the commission means business, but there is nothing yet to suggest that Chavan’s disqualification is certain. But the threat is real, and if the former chief minister is indeed disqualified, it would be nothing short of a critical body blow to the Congress party. During his campaign for election to the Lok Sabha this summer, it was amply clear that in Marathwada, the region Chavan dominates, and in most other parts of Maharashtra (barring Mumbai and Pune), the Adarsh imbroglio is simply a non-issue for voters – even though he was forced to resign as CM and sent into political semi-exile for the same. Chavan’s win was always assured. He is now one of only two Congress MPs from Maharashtra, the other being the relatively inexperienced Rajeev Satav, believed to be close to party vice-president Rahul Gandhi. State Congress leaders have chosen to play it safe, for now, saying it’s still not necessary that Chavan will be disqualified. But what’s making everybody in the state Congress nervous is whether the party will risk fielding Chavan as one of the major campaigners for the Assembly election in the eventuality that he is disqualified. It’s a Catch 22 situation for the state Congress. The Bharatiya Janata Party will have yet another stick with which to to beat the Congress. Worse, the crisis comes at a time when the state Congress leadership is still putting out fires and rebellions within the party. Industries Minister and Konkan strongman Narayan Rane’s leaked letter to party president Sonia Gandhi in which he blamed Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for the party’s disastrous performance in the Lok Sabha election was only one of the many of the recent time-to-replace-Prithviraj Chavan chants emanating from within the party. Even deal-making with the Nationalist Congress party will be a huge challenge with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar having reportedly made a pitch for a change in the state Congress leadership during a meeting with senior Congress leader AK Antony and Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel. The chief minister is no mass leader, he is not even a powerful orator. A technocrat-administrator, his skills in electoral politics are probably better suited to backroom activity, number-crunching, strategising, and planning. So it’s his predecessor Ashok Chavan who is likely to be the Congress party’s star campaigner in what will be the first Assembly election in Maharashtra since the demise of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.  With Narayan Rane sulking and his own sway over Konkan shrinking rapidly, and other senior Congress ministers scurrying to protect their turfs after the shocking LS election results, Ashok Chavan will be the sole Congress leader who can campaign across the state with confidence, and without the burden of a narrow turf to protect nor the electoral insecurities besieging the others. The only other major state leader for the Congress, and with a large OBC mass base of his own, is Sushilkumar Shinde. But the former Union minister not only lost the general election by a large margin, he also failed to post a lead in the Solapur Assembly segment represented in the legislature by his daughter Praniti. Speaking to The Indian Express, state BJP President Devendra Fadnavis said, “Narendra Modi worked for a Congress-free government at the Centre, now EC is ensuring corruption-free election.” If Chavan is indeed disqualified, the BJP will no doubt seize public perception of wrongdoing by the former CM to their advantage. At the same time, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday reiterated a comment he made a few weeks back, that the Congress top brass in Delhi is keen for him to take the reins of the Congress in Maharashtra. On Friday, Chavan contested the claim but Pawar defiantly went on to reiterate it on Sunday: “I had three meetings with senior Congress leaders in Delhi after the party’s humiliating defeat in the general elections. They had asked me to lead the Congress-NCP front in the forthcoming assembly election. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan did not attend any of these crucial meetings.” Where a bevy of other Congress leaders including state ministers who travelled to Delhi to complain against Prithviraj Chavan failed to undercut the CM’s pre-eminence, Pawar appears to have succeeded. The NCP, ambitious and hard-nosed, has been sniping at the Congress party’s feet in Maharashtra. A longer political exile for Ashok Chavan will be a welcome windfall for the junior alliance partner. Chavan has 20 days to respond. The notification for the Assembly polls is expected another two weeks later. Fighting with their backs to the wall already, bad news for Chavan will doubtless be worse news for the Congress.