Roadblocks already in Chavan's appointment

NEW DELHI: The NCP is not enthusiastic about Maharashtra industries minister Ashok Chavan as a replacement for Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh as Maharashtra chief minister.

Mr Chavan had emerged as the main contender in the Congress for the post on Monday. However, NCP leaders as well as sections of the Maharashtra Congress see Mr Chavan as ���not having enough stature��� for the post.

���This is not the time to experiment. He (Mr Chavan) does not have the stature to pull it through (such difficult times),��� a senior NCP leader said. Some leaders in the Maharashtra Congress agree with the NCP. A Congress leader from the state explained that though Mr Chavan was experienced and had held ministerial posts, he was not seen as being ���dynamic��� enough.

The NCP is led by Mr Sharad Pawar who has modelled himself as Maharashtra���s tallest Maratha leader. It has become a truism of Congress-NCP coalition politics that Mr Pawar would not like to see another Maratha in the chief minister���s post. The NCP���s problems with Mr Ashok Chavan and the other contender Mr Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state in PM���s office, has to do with their Maratha background.

In addition, SB Chavan, who was Maharashtra chief minister twice, was an arch opponent of Mr Pawar within Congress and taken on the Maratha lobby from Western Maharashtra lead by him.
The current incumbent Vilasrao has found acceptance from the NCP as he is a Deshmukh-Maratha and shares a good working relationship with that party���s leadership.

The NCP is looking at the ouster of Mr R R Patil, who was both deputy CM and state home minister, as a opportunity to separate the two posts and accommodate more of its senior leaders in government. The names of Jayant Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal are doing the rounds for home minister and deputy CM���s posts respectively. Mr Bhujbal was the deputy CM in the previous Congress-NCP government as well.