Anil Deshmukh, a leader in the Nationalist Congress Party and a former home minister of Maharashtra, claimed on Sunday that he was given an offer that would have caused the Maha Vikas Aghadi regime to fall much earlier. Deshmukh spent 13 months in jail for alleged money laundering and corruption cases before being released on bail.
Deshmukh, who was arrested in November 2021 and released on bail on December 28 of the previous year, was speaking at the state-level Conference on Collective Forest Rights in Sewagram, Wardha, which was attended by gram sabhas and NGOs working in river and forest conservation.
"I was made an offer while in jail, which I refused. If I had compromised (accepted the offer), the Maha Vikas Aghadi government would have fallen two-and-a-half years ago. But I believe in justice, so waited to be released," Deshmukh said.
The MVA government of Uddhav Thackeray fell in June last year after several Shiv Sena MLAs rebelled under Eknath Shinde, who went on to become chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"The 40 MLAs of Shiv Sena left the original party and formed government with BJP as they were threatened with action by the Enforcement Directorate. I was put in jail for 14 months under bogus accusations. However, I never gave up," he added.