Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh offered to quit his office owing to the mounting pressure on government after the terror attacks on Mumbai. He is reported to have sent his resignation letter to the party high command. Earlier, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil also resigned from his post. Meanwhile, reports claimed that although Vilasrao Deshmukh offered to resign, he has not submitted his resignation letter to the governor.

 

Deshmukh might be replaced by one of the three people- Prithviraj Chavan, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan. But the NCP seems reluctant to induct Prithviraj Chavan as Deshmukh's successor. Both Vilasrao Deshmukh and R R Patil had come under tremendous criticism for their failure to handle the Mumbai situation efficiently. Apart from it, the Congress leadership became furious over Deshmukh's visit to the Taj along with filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma.

 

Besides these, the Mumbai incidents snatched away the office of Home Minister Shivraj Patil on November 30. Before his resignation, Patil was under tremendous pressure both from within and outside the party. Last week's terror attacks on India's financial city shook the entire social, economic and political base of the country. Many people criticised the role of government as they feel that the operations in terrorist-captured buildings could have been executed much swiftly thereby averting the extra losses.