Two days after sacking, Ramkrishna Dhavalikar claims getting threats from NIA, ED

PANAJI: Two days after he was dropped from the cabinet, former deputy chief minister and

MGP

senior leader Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’

Dhavalikar

alleged that he has been receiving threatening calls from income tax department, enforcement directorate and even National Investigation Agency (NIA) that they would conduct raids and implicate his wife for her association with the controversial Sanatan Sanstha.


“Yesterday (Thursday), we got a threat call from NIA that my wife would be put behind bars. They are pressurising us (MGP) not to contest the elections,” Dhavalikar told TOI on Friday.

He alleged that the threat calls started coming after he was dropped from the cabinet on Wednesday.

Dhavalikar’s younger brother and MGP president Pandurang ‘Deepak’ Dhavalikar filed his nomination for the Shiroda assembly bypoll on Friday and the party has decided to contest both the Lok Sabha seats.

“All of us (five brothers) have been paying income tax since 1980. The I-T department has scrutinised our documents and whenever they have asked us to pay a fine, we have complied with their notices. Let the income tax department work independently,” he said.

Dhavalikar said they would not be cowed down by these threats and the party would continue to work towards fulfilling the aspirations of people. “Whatever is happening is not good for democracy. We will continue to expand the party base in the state,” he said.

The rift between the erstwhile coalition partners—BJP and MGP—started after the younger Dhavalikar insisted on contesting the bypolls from Shiroda.

During the formation of the BJP-led coalition government after former chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s death, Union minister Nitin Gadkari took an assurance from MGP that they will withdraw from Shiroda.

But MGP failed to keep its word and in a midnight coup on Tuesday, BJP split MGP’s legislature wing with two of the three MLAs joining the saffron party. Dhavalikar was stripped of the deputy chief minister post and dropped from the cabinet by chief minister Pramod Sawant.

Tourism minister Manohar Azgaonkar, who joined BJP, was appointed as the deputy chief minister and Sanvordem MLA Deepak Pauskar was made the PWD minister.