NCP sees ulterior motive

MUMBAI: The top rung of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leadership is worried that there is an ulterior motive to the action against Asia’s largest cooperative bank. The Congress is trying to soften up before going in for more stringent action against those in the foremost row of the NCP hierarchy.
The NCP is upset over the way its poll ally acted swiftly in dissolving the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) and fears that the Congress will take more action to clip its wings in Maharashtra.
The NCP’s extended state executive will meet here on Thursday, but insiders said the issue which has hurt it the most since its inception in 1999 will not be raised.
State NCP president Madhukar Pichad told TOI that the meeting was convened to discuss preparations for a massive convention of dalits and other backward class people in Mumbai on June 10, to coincide with the foundation day. of the party
Though chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Manikrao Thakre have repeatedly made it clear that the action is not aimed against it, and that the Congress high command has nothing to do with it, the NCP is not buying that theory. It is convinced that the Congress high command has prepared a plan to clip the wings of its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partners so that it will create space for its own consolidation.
The 40,000-crore worth cooperative bank is considered the NCP’s financial arm which party chief Sharad Pawar has utilized to control the rural economy and to dominate local politics. The NCP has now lost its financial clout with one stroke, and its stalwarts are worried that administrators working directly under Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidance may further probe the misdeeds of the coop kings.
The administrators may also probe the implementation of the Rs 3,700-crore prime minister’s package for Vidarbha farmers.
Five district cooperative banks, including the Pune District Cooperative Bank, withdrew fixed deposits from MSCB just before its board was dissolved.
The NCP has decided to react to the Congress action only after results of the recent assembly elections.
The state NCP is upset that Congress leaders did not raise the MSCB issue at the recent meeting of the committee for better coordination between the two parties. A senior Shiv Sena leader said, “With the MSCB’s dissolution, the Congress-NCP alliance, which has been ruling the state for 10 years, is no more stable.