Vilasrao Deshmukh addresses a news conference in Mumbai on Monday. (Fotocorp)

New Delhi, Dec. 1: Vilasrao Deshmukh today became the third political bigwig to lose his chair following the Mumbai terror attack. He is set to be replaced by Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Vilasrao’s fall became imminent minutes after Nationalist Congress Party strongman Sharad Pawar prevailed on a defiant R.R. Patil to step down as Maharashtra home minister. Union home minister Shivraj Patil had resigned yesterday.

After R.R. Patil’s resignation, Shinde was summoned to 10 Janpath and asked to take up the chief minister’s job in Mumbai.

Defence minister A.K. Antony, who looks after the Congress’s Maharashtra party affairs, said a final decision would be announced in Mumbai tomorrow after talks with the allies in Maharashtra’s ruling Democratic Front.

A somewhat guarded Antony said: “I can only say that the Maharashtra chief minister has offered to resign. A coalition government is there and we have to consult the allies.… At this point, I cannot say anything.”

Since yesterday, Vilasrao had been trying hard to save his chair. Backed by a powerful All India Congress Committee official, the chief minister had kept saying he had “offered to resign” at Saturday night’s Congress Working Committee meeting in Delhi.

But several CWC members, when asked about it, could not remember him making such a gesture. Vilasrao then cited the presence of President Pratibha Patil in Mumbai as a reason for not handing in his resignation. But the Congress leadership made it clear he would have to go.

Shinde (top), R.R. Patil

Vilasrao would have loved to bargain for an important post in Delhi, either in the Union government or the party, but the Congress leadership may not be very keen to accommodate him, sources said.

Pawar has now emerged as a key player and is set to extract the maximum benefit for himself while supervising the change of guard in the Mumbai Mantralaya.

Sources said Pawar had vetoed Congress nominee Prithviraj Chavan as Vilasrao’s successor. They said the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office had been the Congress’s first choice but his inexperience in state politics and anti-NCP profile stood in the way.

Pawar is alleged to have also rejected state-level Congress leaders Ashok Chavan and Govindrao Adik. Congress sources said the Union agriculture minister’s objective may have been to ensure that Chavan or Adik did not outshine Pawar’s politician nephew Ajit, now a minister in Maharashtra.

Political leaders familiar with Maharashtra politics said Pawar was likely to have a decisive say in the appointment of the state home minister. Maharashtra finance minister Jayant Patil, apparently a front-runner, may not get the prized portfolio because of his brinkmanship with Ajit.

Chhagan Bhujbal and Vijaysinh Mohite Patil are being spoken of as possible candidates.

The chief ministerial succession may invoke feelings of déjà vu among many. Shinde had replaced Deshmukh in the hot seat in January 2003. He led the coalition to victory in the October 2004 Assembly polls, but was still shunted out as governor of Andhra Pradesh because the Congress tally had come down.

Vilasrao became the chief minister again. Shinde, who had fought unsuccessfully against Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in 2002, bounced back as Union minister in January 2006.