After top cop, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s job on the line?

Home Minister Anil Deshmukh

State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh met his party's chief Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on Friday amid speculations that the NCP may reshuffle its ministers in the MVA government. This comes in the wake of the political controversy that the Ambani bomb scare and alleged murder of businessman Mansukh Hiran have created.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar

State NCP president and Water Resources Development Minister Jayant Patil participated in the meeting. Patil, who headed the home department after the 26/11 terror attacks, is said to be one of the contenders to replace Deshmukh whenever the NCP chief decides to effect changes.

Pawar was expected to meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday or Saturday. Sources said the reshuffle may not happen immediately, but take place in the coming days, possibly sometime in April. The speculations over a cabinet reshuffle were linked to the Shiv Sena, which is upset because it had to bear the brunt of the case while the ruling partners looked the other way.

It was due to Pawar's intervention in the past fortnight that the MVA took certain damage-control measures. But now the Sena wants Pawar to set an example by acting against his own, especially after Param Bir Singh was removed as the Mumbai police commissioner. The MVA's third partner, the Congress, shares the Sena's views.

Home Minister Anil Deshmukh (right) with the Water Resources Development Minister Jayant Patil. File pic

Sources said the Sena doesn't want to be a sacrificial goat every time a controversy erupts. Last month, the Sena had asked its minister Sanjay Rathod to resign after he was linked to a woman's suicide. The Sena wants Pawar to play even because the NCP had defended another minister when serious accusations were made against him by two sisters.

The Sena wants the NCP to share the blame for the failure of police in the bomb scare case and act appropriately against the home department's political head. Talking to the media in Delhi, Deshmukh confirmed that the leaders discussed the bomb scare case. "The Anti-Terrorism Squad and National Investigation Agency (NIA) are probing the case. The state is cooperating with the NIA," he said. He tweeted later in the evening, "The news reports in electronic media about my resignation are baseless."