He reiterated that the punishment meted out to him was “political vendetta” as he had not listened to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and went ahead with placing Latur Lok Sabha constituency under reservation during the delimitation exercise. Referring to Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar, Lal said he respected him, “but he had told me on April 23, 2006, that he was under pressure from the CM.”

When contacted, Chhajed claimed there was no pressure on the Committee from any quarters. “Neither the CM nor any other person has interfered with the working of the Committee,” he said. “The fact that we took two years to complete our work proves that we were not in a hurry. We have given ample opportunities to Nand Lal to clarify his stance, but he chose to show contempt.”

Chhajed said his Committee would begin the process on the original breach of privileges by Nand Lal — for issuing the notification on internal elections in civic bodies — after the conclusion of the ongoing session of the state Legislature. The two-day sentence was given as per a special report of the committee for ignoring notices and showing contempt for the Assembly, he said, adding that though Nand Lal was arrested on Thursday and released on Friday, it was a period of two days as per the jail manual.

The CM, too, when contacted, insisted that there was no question of exerting pressure on Nand Lal over the reservation of Latur Lok Sabha constituency, as he had never contested the Lok Sabha seat from Latur. “I have appointed him as the inquiry officer in several cases, how can I pressurise him to change a constituency’s restructuring?” he asked. Deshmukh lambasted BJP members for criticising the decision of the Committee and pointed out that it included members from all parties. He said Lal’s allegation that the action against him was a political vendetta was “baseless”.

... contd.