MUMBAI, Aug 20: The appointment of R H Mendonca as Mumbai's Commissioner of Police in place of S C Malhotra, might be touted as victory for Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde.

An otherwise low profile police official, Mendonca shot into limelight when he took over the investigations into the Ramesh Kini case, where he had interrogated Sena supremo Bal Thackeray's nephew Raj and the Sena leader Ashutosh Rane.

Since the alliance government came into power two and half years ago, this is the first time that Chief Minister Manohar Joshi has approved a proposal by Munde, although even this was delayed by almost a week.

Why the sudden change? Afterall, both Joshi and Bal Thackeray, had unequivocally stated that Malhotra will not be transferred, despite their otherwise scathing attack on the ex-CP for his inept handling of the law and order situation in the metropolis.

Apparently, Munde's ultimatum to Joshi on Tuesday to take a decision on his proposals within 24 hours worked. It was improper for the Chief Minister to keep the files pending for a week, he should take a decision either way, but at the earliest, Munde had reportedly informed Joshi. During his yesterday's meeting with Joshi, Munde strongly stressed the need to shift Malhotra and bring in Mendonca.

Munde has held all along that since the top officials of the police department were not appointed by his choice, it will be wrong to blame him for the deteriorating law and order situation.

He had further mainted that he was not consulted for appointment of Ram Deo Tyagi and Malhotra, by Joshi.

When Tyagi was shifted and promoted in the rank of Director General of Police, the Shiv Sena held that the Commissioner's post should be elevated, while Munde was in favour of appointing Mendonca. As no consensus emerged, Malhotra was selected as the compromise candidate.

The Sena mouthpiece, Saamna, had strongly criticised Munde on several occasions. Thackeray was particularly upset over the failure of the Home Department, headed by Munde to curb the rising stature of the underworld don Arun Gawli.

Be it granting extension to controversial Chief Secretary Dinesh Afzalpurkar, the revival of the multicrore Enron power project or disposal of surplus mill lands, Munde's views have never been taken seriously by the Sena.

Joshi, though, claimed that there were no differences between him and Munde over top appointments in the police department. ``All the proposals submitted by Munde were approved without making a single change. However, on occasions, there have been some delay in taking a final decision,'' Joshi said today.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.