By IANS
New Delhi : Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh Wednesday dismissed possibilities of returning to Delhi either as a union minister or an office-bearer of the Congress.
“Such talks are not speculations, but rumours,” he told reporters after he finalized the state’s annual plan outlay for 2008-09 of Rs.250 billion with the Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Deshmukh has been accused of mishandling the situation in Maharashtra after activists of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) launched a violent campaign against north Indians last month.
Deshmukh was also criticized for not doing enough for farmers who were committing suicide in Vidarbha and other parts of the state.
Though seen as close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Deshmukh faced a major political problem when his ministerial colleague Narayan Rane, earlier in the Shiv Sena, complained against his style of functioning.
Deshmukh, however, always managed to have the last laugh. “It is all because of the fact that he is close to his party president Sonia Gandhi,” said a Congress leader.