Third Uddhav minister in ‘trouble’, Anil Parab is CM’s trusted aide & a Matoshree regular

Maharashtra cabinet minister Anil Parab has been accused by suspended Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze of extortion.

Minister Anil Parab is a close aide of CM Uddhav Thackeray | ThePrint

Mumbai: In fresh trouble for the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, another of its ministers, Anil Parab, is now battling allegations of extortion, prompting the BJP to call for an in-depth probe.

What makes it a trickier situation for the CM is that this time, the minister in question, Parab, is one of his inner circle of people and among his few close confidantes within the Shiv Sena.

The accusations against Parab came from suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Waze, who Wednesday alleged that the minister had instructed him to collect Rs 50 crore from a trust facing an inquiry, to close the probe.

Waze also said that Parab had directed him to make certain collections from supposedly fraudulent contractors with the Mumbai civic body. The allegations were part of a letter that Waze purportedly tried to submit to a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court. Waze is presently in the custody of the NIA in the Ambani terror scare case.

The accusations against Parab come after allegations of extortion against another MVA minister, the NCP’s Anil Deshmukh. A third minister in the Thackeray-led coalition, the Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Rathod, also courted controversy over allegations of being involved in the death of TikTok star, Pooja Chavan. Rathod and Deshmukh had to both resign from the cabinet.

Referring to the allegations against Parab, opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis said, “The letter is serious. There should be an inquiry by the CBI or by a competent authority to ensure there is doodh ka doodh aur paani ka paani (the truth is revealed).”

The 56-year-old Parab has worked his way up within the party. From being just another karyakarta under the mentorship of former Shiv Sena MP Madhukar Sarpotdar, he became a surprise pick in the Thackeray-led cabinet — chosen over more senior leaders such as Diwakar Raote and Ramdas Kadam. He has rejected the charges against him, slamming them as conspiracy by the BJP. The minister has also said that he was open to any inquiry.

The Thackeray’s go-to man

Many in the Shiv Sena believe it was Parab’s proximity to the Thackeray residence, Matoshree, in Bandra East — the minister lives in Gandhi Nagar, a kilometre away from Kala Nagar in the suburb where Matoshree is located — helped him forge a bond with the Thackeray family.

“Whenever there were any civic issues in Bandra East, any complaints of cleanliness or drainage, Parab would be Bala saheb’s (Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray) first call. Owing to his physical proximity to Matoshree, Parab was also able to attend any meeting called at any point of the day and soon became one of the Thackeray family’s go-to person. Almost like a family member,” said a senior Shiv Sena functionary.

About 20 years ago, Parab, a lawyer by qualification (he also has a PhD from the Mumbai University), was appointed the vibhag pramukh (divisional head) of the Shiv Sena’s north west unit, stretching from Bandra to Jogeshwari.

Mentored by Sarpotdar — who in 2008, became one of the Sena leaders convicted for inciting the 1992-93 riots — he started by strengthening support for the party in small, micro pockets of Bandra. When Sarpotdar was associated with the Maharashtra Shramik Sena, the party’s trade union outfit, Parab ended up doing a substantial amount of work as a trade union leader too.

Slowly, his role within the party grew from that of a foot soldier, mobilising support on ground, to a smart strategist who fights the opposition’s attacks with calculated aggression.

Vinod Ghosalkar, a former MLA who used to lead the party administration from Jogeshwari to Dahisar, said he and Parab started their journeys as divisional heads together, and rooted the Sena in the western suburbs over four consecutive municipal elections.

“Since he is a lawyer, many of us went to him for advice on how to handle any tricky administrative, organisational or political issue. As a leader, he has a lot of self-control and shows aggression only where it’s needed,” Ghosalkar added.

From defeating Narayan Rane to fighting fire from BJP

Over the past decade, the Shiv Sena leadership has put Parab in charge of many key assignments, and the MLC — he is currently serving his third term — has almost never disappointed Matoshree.

For example, for the high-profile, hotly-contested Bandra East assembly bypoll in 2015, Uddhav Thackeray had entrusted the responsibility of drumming up support for Shiv Sena candidate Trupti Sawant to Parab.

Former Shiv Sena leader Narayan Rane had moved to the Congress and entered the electoral battle to challenge the Shiv Sena in its own backyard. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), heady with its successful debut in the 2014 assembly elections, also put in a candidate in the constituency, which has a significant Muslim population. The Shiv Sena won with a comfortable margin.

In the run-up to the 2017 Mumbai civic polls, as BJP leaders Kirit Somaiya and Ashish Shelar, among others, hurled graft allegations at Shiv Sena leaders, Parab held press conferences almost on a daily basis to fight the fire.

Parab was also at the forefront of getting six of the seven Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) corporators in the Mumbai civic body to defect to the Shiv Sena and establish a clear lead in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, considered the Sena’s power centre.

After being chosen as cabinet minister over more senior faces such as Raote and Kadam, and other aspirants like Ravindra Waikar and Sunil Prabhu, Parab has constantly been on the opposition’s radar.

He has also been at the forefront of the MVA government’s fight against BJP attacks. In the controversy surrounding Waze’s alleged involvement in planting explosives outside Mukesh Ambani’s house, Parab defended the government so strongly that Fadnavis asked if it was Parab, and not the then home minister Deshmukh, who was running the department.

‘BJP attempts to disturb CM’

“Parab has time and again risen to the responsibilities given by the leadership and so has found his way into the circle of the CM’s trusted aides…Rajneeti (politics) requires rananiti (strategy), and Parab is very shrewd at both,” a Sena MLA said.

Some within the party see the allegations against Parab as a means of hitting out at the chief minister.

“The BJP is trying to fire at Uddhav saheb by pointing the gun at someone else. They (the BJP leaders) must have thought that Anil Parab is a good fit as the CM is close to him and might get disturbed if Parab is disturbed,” a senior Shiv Sena leader, who did not wish to be named, told ThePrint. “But, Uddhav saheb is coolheaded. Anil Parab too is strong and steadfast and unlikely to be too bothered by such charges.”

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)