Prithviraj Chavan : Coalition politics may be affecting govt's efficiency

MUMBAI: Reacting to the leaked US diplomatic cable which says that Maharashtra is suffering from "lack of good political leadership", Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today conceded that "coalition politics" might be affecting the government's efficiency.

"There is a difference when a state is led by a single party and Maharashtra, where we have a coalition politics. Here the industry department is with one party, finance and power with the other," Chavan said, talking to reporters here.

However, he maintained that the state was still at number one position when it came to attracting investment.

Chavan's statement may not go down well with coalition partner NCP, which had taken a strong exception to his remark after recent Mumbai blasts that giving charge of the home department to the Sharad Pawar-led party was a mistake.

However, playing down the Wikileaks revelations, he said they would not impact state policies or decisions as the information was not completely "credible".

On the criticism that he took long to clear files, Chavan said he gave priority to matters of public interest rather than "personal" ones.

The US cable, written one year after 26/11 Mumbai attack, said, "By all accounts, Maharashtra has lacked good political leadership for almost two decades. The last ten years of Congress/NCP rule has been marked by an inability to implement major development or infrastructure programmes."

It further said, "The political coalition is openly fractious..."