Heads I Win, Tails you lose-as the outgoing CM of Maharashtra Vilasroa Deshmukh, inspite of his weak and inefficient administrative skills-should go down in history as one of the masters in the art of political survival and transforming defeat into victory.
Political pundits give him full points in the manner he fought tooth and nail even to the extent of pleading shamelessly before Sonia Gandhi till very last minute to save to his gaddi but when it became evident that the Congress high command particularly Sonia Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony were in no mood to relent, he lost no time to swing his weight behind Ashok Chavan as the new CM.
Why did he do so? Well firstly Chavan also hails from the Latur-Marathwada belt, just like Vilasrao Deshmukh and former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. Secondly Ashok Chavan's late father S.B. Chavan, who had twice been Chief Minister of Maharashtra - is known to have mentored Vilasroao in politics. Thirdly, as one of the youngest and weakest candidates in the race with little or no known mass base of his own - Ashok Chavan were probably the easiest choices as a proxy CM.
Thus despite his initial reluctance to step down, Vilasrao Deshmukh, made it known that he was prepared to do so if Ashok Chavan was nominated as his successor. Obviously he felt the being a political light weight, Ashok Chavan would end up being a proxy CM with the actual remote control, still being in his hand.
But this is when things did not go exactly as planned. Inspite of Vilasrao's backing only 32 MLAs were prepared to support Ashok Chavan, while some 48 MLAs were reportedly siding with Narain Rane. And the rest were divided between the other contenders like Patangrao Kadam and Balasaheb Vikhe Patil.
But then, Vialsrao was in no mood to let Narain Rane who was one of the strongest contenders till then to get the CM post. There was little doubt from the manner in which Rane, had resigned in the past alleging financial irregularities by the Vilasrao Deshmukh Trust, that if ever he got to occupy the top seats in the state, one of the first things he would do would be to institute vigilance enquiries against Deshmukh. This was a risk Deshmukh was not willing to take, so he along with his friends in Delhi started a wisper campaign questioning Rane's loyalty towards the party. Rane's sole intention behind joining the Congress was to become the Chief Minister and The fact that Rane had been in the Congress party for a relatively short time, did not help either.
The last minute lobbying helped and Ashok Chavan, 50, emerged as a frontrunner, being the youngest aspirant as all other contenders for the post of chief minister from Sushil Kumar Shinde, Prithviraj Narayan Rane (63), Chavan and Balasahib Vikhe Patil were well past 60.
So from being a hot contender, Rane was dropped like a hot potato. This obviously did not go down well with Narain Rane who lashed out as saying "It is all money game. I do not reckon Ashok Chavan as my competitor as I am senior in all respects having held the post of Chief Minister in the past."
Meanwhile, political observers feel that Pawar delivered yet another masterstroke by going endorsing Bhujbal's nomination as deputy CM. This is Bhujbal's second stint as deputy CM, as he had quit the post in 2003 after his name was linked to Abdul Karim Telgi in the stamp paper scam.
Though his name was cleared by the court, sources say he silently holds a grudge about the manner in which the Maratha-dominated NCP had treated him during his bad days and was said to be mending fences with his one-time mentor Bal Thackeray. As a resourceful leader from the backward Mali community and head of OBC forum, Bhujbal holds the key to the backward caste votes in the assemble elections next year.
Bhujbal endorsement for the deputy CM's post by NCP and his background as an ex-Shiv Sena leader also helped Vialsrao's supporters to bury Rane's prospects as - both CM and Deputy CM cannot be from the Shiv Sena background-they argued.
Meanwhile as part of the secret package deal between Vilasrao Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan-Vilasrao seems to be continuing the fruits of power. Not only was he able to have his say in allocation of portfolios to the new council of ministers but also was able to para-drop his brother Dileep Deshmukh in the Chavan cabinet. But it remains to be seen how long this marriage of convenience will last....
History of public administration is replete with examples of how weak and indecisive protégés had no problems being "his master's voice" till they themselves picked up the ropes and that's when the problems started. Would the same be the case this time?
