Latur: The former chief minister of Mahrashtra and Congress leader Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar has questioned why Sharad Pawar is now suffering heartache as his partymen have been crossing over to the Bharatiya Janata Party. This has been Pawar’s modus operandi all along, says Patil Nilangekar.
“Pawar has quit the party not once, but four times. He even split the Congress, establish another Congress and formed a coalition government. Such a leader has no business talking about party-hopping,” said Patil Nilangekar.
Patil Nilangekar went on to say, he divided the Congress and caused a lot of damage to the party. “Who backstabbed Vasantdada Patil? Pawar is a destructive politician, not just for the state, but for this nation,” he said.
He went on to accuse Pawar for causing him personal loss. “He was responsible for ousting me from the chief minister’s position.”
However, critics of this former CM say this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Patil Nilangekar was the chief minister of Maharashtra from June 1985 to March 1986.
He had to resign when the Bombay High Court passed strictures against him after fraud was alleged in the results of the MD examination in 1985 “at the behest” of the CM, to help his daughter and her friend get through.
On November 30,1985, the University of Bombay had declared the results of MD (obstetrics and gynaecology) examinations held in October and November.
An amazing 72 per cent of the candidates — 34 out of 47 — who sat for the tough exam were declared passed. Rumours began circulating in medical colleges that the extraordinary results were linked with irregularities committed to pass Nilangekar’s daughter Chandrakala, who had earlier failed the exam thrice.
One of the failed students, Dr Mahesh Gosavi, an assistant medical officer at the King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital, was told that the convenor of the MD exams, Dr Mahesh V Raval, had tampered with the grades to pass Nilangekar’s daughter and another candidate, Smita Ganesh Thacker, who was said to be a favourite of Raval’s at KEM Hospital. After this controversy, Patil Nilangekar had to step down as chief minister.
