Will come out clean: Ashok Chavan after resigning as Maharashtra CM

Mumbai : Outgoing Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan on Tuesday claimed innocence in the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society scam and said he will come out clean in any enquiry conducted to unearth the truth.

Stressing that acceptance of his resignation as chief minister does not prove his guilt, Chavan said, ?I resigned because of the Congress party?s moral stand on such issues. I resigned on my own. My resignation has been accepted pending enquiry. The government is not involved in the scam.?

Chavan submitted his resignation to Governor K Sankaranarayanan as per instructions of the Congress high command.

?I am 100 per cent sure I will come out clean on this. There are ups and downs in political life. I will continue to work as party worker,? he said.

Stating that he was ready to face any enquiry, Chavan said, ?Let there be a proper inquiry…The truth will definitely emerge.?

He said he decided to quit to clear any shroud of doubt in minds of the people.

Claiming he enjoyed the confidence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he said, ?She twice gave me the opportunity to become Chief Minister. I still enjoy the confidence of my leader Soniaji. I am grateful for whatever she has done for me.?

He, however, refused to speculate of his successor.

Barely had the Obamas left India on Tuesday morning, the ruling Congress party cracked its whip on corruption ahead of the winter session of Parliament accepting the resignation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan over the housing scam.

The report into the scam by central Congress Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony, appointed by Congress to probe the issue, was also submitted to the party president, reports said.

“Pending inquiry, Chavan’s offer of resignation has been accepted. He has been asked to tender his resignation to Governor K Sankaranarayanan,” Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said in a statement.

Sushil Kumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chauhan, who is Minister of State for Science and Technology and the Prime Minister’s Office, are front runners for the post of Maharashtra Chief Minister now.

Sucked into the controversy over allotment of flats in the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society meant for Kargil War heroes’ families to a clutch of bureaucrats and politicians in Mumbai, Ashok Chavan had offered to resign from his post before Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi earlier, but the decision was kept a bay in view of the visit of the US President.

The 30-storey apartment, housing many top level defence officials, was built on a disputed army land at Colaba and the flats meant for the families of the Kargil martyrs were allotted to top defence officials and kin of politicians.