Won’t change work style or bow to pressure: CM

Mumbai : Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan made it clear that he was not going to budge to any pressure from within the party or from the allies.

This tough stand by him only made Rane to withdraw his resignation on Tuesday.

 In an interview to a news channel, Chavan defended his style of functioning which had came under severe criticism both within the Congress and from NCP, their ally for more than 15 years.

“I need not change my style of functioning to please anybody,” Chavan said during the interview.

“I have worked in the Prime minister’s office. I know how decisions are made. If we ignore the law of the land for populist decisions, there won’t be the rule of law,” he said.

Chavan, who had had been criticised for his slow pace of work, dismissed his critics by saying, “The files that come to the CM’s office are monitored by software. Anybody would know from the data of the software that during my regimen, maximum number of files were handled and decided upon.”

He said only people, whose interests were compromised due to his decisions, criticised him.

 Some of his decisions were not taken by his critics in the right spirit.

“I decided to publish the white paper on irrigation so that the right information will reach the people. But that was looked down upon as a charge sheet”, he said. “But, I never made any decision under political pressure”, he said.

Brushing aside questions regarding Rane, he said:  “He (Rane) must have criticised me out of emotional outburst and taken back his resignation after giving a thought about his future”.

Reflecting on the party’s defeat in the parliamentary elections earlier this year, Chavan said the party suffered at the cost of some of the decisions taken by the government. The move to subsidise LPG through banks did not go well with the people. The decision on food security was delayed and many of the ambitious plans of the government did not reach the people.

“Rahul Gandhi should have accepted a post in the government. Had he been in the government, the picture would have been different”, Chavan said.