Hours after Congress senior leader Rahul Gandhi in a press interaction today distanced his party from the Coronavirus mess created in the alliance government ruled state, Maharashtra Congress chief, Balasaheb Thorat has jumped into the rescue mode. News agency ANI has quoted Thorat as saying: “Congress is not unhappy. All three parties hold meetings every week where decisions are taken. All parties are working together”.
The Maharashtra Congress chief was responding to the question on whether the party was disgruntled with the fact that its other two alliance partners- Shiv Sena’s chief, Uddhav Thackeray and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had met today to discuss the COVID-19 mess in Maharashtra.
Congress is not unhappy. All the three parties hold meetings every week where decisions are taken. All parties are working together: Balasaheb Thorat,Maharashtra Congress chief&Minister on being asked ‘if Congress is unhappy with Sharad Pawar’s meeting with CM Uddhav Thackeray’ pic.twitter.com/JHS6kB9p53
— ANI (@ANI) May 26, 2020
Rahul distances himself from Maharashtra mess
Maharashtra has spiralled into a Coronavirus hotspot state rather quickly with the number of positive cases crossing the 52,000-mark. The state now contributes over a third of the Coronavirus cases in the entire country, with Mumbai being most severely affected. While Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has drawn sharp criticism for his handling of the Coronavirus pandemic, Rahul Gandhi, during a press interaction today distanced Congress from the mess being created in the alliance government ruled state.
Responding to the question, Rahul Gandhi said that since Maharashtra is the most connected and owing to the nature of the state, the spread of the virus in the state was inevitable. However, shielding Congress from sharing any of the governance blame, Rahul Gandhi also said that Congress is not in a decision making role in Maharashtra.
Rahul Gandhi said that there is a difference between running the government and supporting the government in the state. He said that Congress can be considered to be in a decision making role in states like Punjab and Rajasthan, but not in Maharashtra.
Effectively, what Rahul Gandhi seems to have done is put the entire onus of the mess on Shiv Sena and distance his own party, Congress, from the misgovernance the state has seen so far. In addition to that, Congress leaders like Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam are highlighting the bad state of government-run hospitals in Mumbai.
Recently, Prithviraj Chavan, the veteran Congress leader had remarked that the Maharashtra government is one which is not run by the Maha Vikas Aghadi but one run only by Shiv Sena.
