Chavan says giving Home to NCP wrong, ally hits back

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan invited the wrath of his NCP allies when he said that the state Home portfolio, which is once again in the spotlight after the bomb blasts in Mumbai this week, should have been with the Congress, not the NCP.

“I think it was a mistake. We should have re-looked at it. I don’t know of any other coalition government where the portfolios of Home, Finance and Planning are not with the Chief Minister,” Chavan said in an interview to NDTV telecast on Friday.

“This was a division agreed to by us in 1999 when Congress-NCP first came to power in the state. That pattern was based on the model adopted by the Shiv Sena- BJP government during 1995-99.”

“But then this is also a unique government where two almost equal partners are running the government, unlike in Delhi or West Bengal where there is a dominant partner having small parties’ support,” Chavan said when asked about internal contradictions about a key portfolio like Home being held by a junior coalition partner.

Posted in: India News