Author: Prafulla Marpakwar & Ramu Bhagwat
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 15, 2010
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6750873.cms?prtpage=1
A day before Sonia Gandhi's much publicized
'Sadbhavana' rally at Sewagram in Wardha district to galvanize the party,
Congress suffered a huge embarrassment after MPCC president Manikrao Thakre
was caught on microphone telling a colleague how he had to mobilize funds
worth crores for the success of the event.
Thakre was confiding in former minister Satish
Chaturvedi, without realizing that the candid conversation on Tuesday, punctuated
by gripes against chief minister Ashok Chavan, was being recorded by a live
microphone.
Besides revealing that the party has mobilized
Rs 10 lakh from each of the 11 cabinet members, Thakre, who passed stringent
remarks against Chavan, disclosed that the CM paid Rs 2 crore for hiring 2,000
state transport corporation buses.
Snatches of the conversation indicated embarrassing
facts - that each minister in the Chavan cabinet was asked to cough up Rs
10 lakh for the Sewagram event and Chavan himself committed Rs 2 crore for
hiring 2,000 buses to ferry crowds for the rally. More shockingly, that money
had to be passed on 'up there' in New Delhi (apparently to party bosses) by
the satraps in Mumbai.
To make matters worse, the sensational conversation
was played on a private channel, leaving the party red-faced, more so because
of Mahatma Gandhi's association with Sewagram.
By evening, however, the party recovered its
wits to announce that Sonia will keep her date with Wardha, while suspicions
were swirling that the recording was not inadvertent but that Thakre may have
been set up. A probe was on and it would factor in the fact that in the factional
dymamics, Chaturvedi has often not been on the same side as Thakre.
The rally has been in planned as part of the
'Gram to Sewagram jhenda (flag) march', a big initiative by the party to connect
with the grassroots.
Later, both Chavan and Thakre made an attempt
to cover up the entire episode, saying the issue had been blown out of proportion.
Chavan said it was a long practice to mobilise funds from party workers for
organising such rallies. "We have been hiring state transport buses,
we make the payment in advance, not like the BJP, which is still in huge arrears.
Let me make it clear, I never paid Rs 2 crore either to the party or Thakre
for payment to the state transport corporation," Chavan said.
On Thakre's caustic remarks against him, Chavan
said it was possible his statement was twisted. "I saw the clippings
on the television channel, it has been twisted," Chavan said. Thakre
said it was a fact that party workers had contributed wholeheartedly for the
success of the rally. "We never asked cabinet members to pay Rs 10 lakh
each. Prima facie, it appears that party workers had given them money and
later, they were to deposit the same with the party," he said. Presumably,
just after they finished briefing mediapersons about the rally preparations,
the two leaders seated on the small dais were involved in a chat which was,
deliberately or otherwise, recorded by a TV channel.
The fact that the channels sat for more than
two days on what they said was explosive material has raised doubts of a different
kind. A Congress minister said the delay was a political move orchestrated
by Chavan's detractors. The minister said it will have no impact on the party.
