Accused on corruption and money laundering and fresh on the heels of a jail term, Anil Deshmukh could become a talking point for the two alliances this election.
Mumbai: Literature and art join the electioneering bandwagon this month to score a point or attack the opponent. If Dharmaveer 2 is expected to shore up support for the Eknath Shinde camp, Anil Deshmukh’s upcoming book, Diary of A Home Minister has the potential of a becoming a political potboiler as he heaps accusations of bullying and coercion against Devendra Fadnavis.
The issue erupted in July this year when the former home minister made serious charges against Fadnavis for allegedly coercing the former home minister to file cases against other leaders of the MVA. Fadnavis, predictably, denied those, and instead accused Deshmukh of speaking out against his own boss, Sharad Pawar and alliance partner Uddhav Thackeray.
The two sides have traded serious barbs against each other since Deshmukh was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in December 2022. On one side are charges of deeply entrenched corruption while on the other, are charges of coercion and what can be described, in simple terms, as blackmail.
While the BJP launched a high-pitched campaign against Deshmukh when he had to step down as the home minister on the heels of a controversy, the NCP (SP) man had, earlier this year, accused Fadnavis of coercing him into filing false cases against MVA leaders, including Aditya Thackeray, in exchange for avoiding a jail term or withdrawal of charges against him.
With Deshmukh announcing his book that details these allegations, the man could become a key point for the two sides to clash on. For the MVA, he is an example of the devious ways and the alleged abuse of the investigation agencies against non-BJP politicians while for the Mahayuti, he is the poster boy of corruption during the MVA regime between 2019 and June 2022.
In 2021, Deshmukh had found himself at the centre of a massive controversy in which former Mumbai police commissioner Parambir Singh had accused Deshmukh of directing police officers to collect money from hotel and bar owners with a target of Rs 100 crore per month. Following these charges, Deshmukh had stepped down as Maharashtra’s home minister, He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case in November 2021 and then by the Central Bureau of Investigation, CBI, in a corruption case in April 2022. He was in prison for 14 months before he was granted bail by the Bombay High Court.
In July this year, Deshmukh had made scandalous charges against Fadnavis, stating that a man by the name of Samit Kadam, had approached him at Fadnavis’s behest with an offer to ‘help’ him if only he would file charges against certain leaders of the Shiv Sena (UBT). The NCP (SP) leader had even claimed to have a pen drive which contained evidence about the allegations he made against Fadnavis. Countering him, Fadnavis had denied these allegations and said that he had several audio-video clips of Deshmukh’s remarks against Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.
As the elections near and accusations fly, Deshmukh could well find himself at the centre of a volatile campaign between the two sides.
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