Tarikh pe tarikh: Congress leader Ashok Chavan takes dig at Shinde govt

Congress leader Ashok Chavan. File Pic

Senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan on Wednesday targeted the Eknath Shinde government over issues ranging from the demand of the Maratha and Dhangar communities for quotas and the proceedings on the disqualification of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs.

"Tarikh pe Tarikh but there is no justice," the former chief minister posted on X quoting the famous dialogue from Sunny Deol-starrer Damini.

He said be it the proceedings on disqualification of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs pending before the assembly Speaker, or the reservation for Marathas or the Dhangar community, and many such issues, the only reply is "Tarikh pe Tarikh".

Earlier last month, Congress leader Ashok Chavan had said the MLAs of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena who had grievances against Ajit Pawar should return to their original party as Pawar is once again holding the finance portfolio.

Speaking at a function, the former chief minister also said the level of politics has gone down and like in the Indian Premier League, there are "auctions" of politicians.

"Some people left the Shiv Sena claiming that they could not work as Ajit Pawar was finance minister (in the MVA government). Now Ajit Pawar is back as finance minister, this is good enough reason for them to come back," Ashok Chavan said, without naming the Eknath Shinde faction, according to the PTI.

These MLAs had claimed back then that Pawar's finance ministry was doing them injustice and hence they left Uddhav Thackeray and joined hands with the BJP (to form a new government), the Congress leader pointed out.

"....the same Ajit Pawar is back as finance minister. Now there is scope for these people to come back as they have this reason. But taking them back will be the (Thackeray-led) Sena's decision," he added, as per the PTI.

When the current chief minister Eknath Shinde and many other Sena MLAs rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray last June, one of the reasons they cited was that the Finance Ministry was starving their constituencies of funds.

Ashok Chavan, meanwhile, also deplored the "degrading level of politics" and said there are "auctions like IPL where people are moving from here to there."

The law of disqualification is not heeded and court hearings are getting adjourned from one date to another, he said, adding, "Now we have to remember that a person meeting us belongs to such and such party....we also have to see which group of that party the person belongs to."

(With inputs from PTI)