Former chief minister A R Antulay passes away

Senior Congress leader and former state chief minister (CM) Abdul Rehman Antulay passed away in Breach Candy Hospital yesterday morning, at the age of 85. He was admitted there with several medical complications.

A R Antulay

Born on February 9, 1929, in Raigad district, Antulay studied law in the UK and quickly rose through the ranks of the Congress. An Indira Gandhi loyalist, he also held Union Cabinet posts.

In his short tenure as Maharashtra CM from June 1980 to January 1982, he became known for taking quick decisions and introducing innovative measures. He encouraged water resource management, which helped his home district and other parts of the state develop by overcoming water shortage.

Antulay had to resign as CM after the ‘cement scandal', in which he was accused of forcing builders to contribute to a trust he had set up, in exchange for quotas for cement, which was then a controlled quantity.

He was exonerated by the Supreme Court 12 years later. Antulay was Union minister for Minority Affairs in the UPA-I government led by Manmohan Singh. Pic/Shadab Khan