Opposition directionless,’ says Sanjay Raut; ‘a government run on nepotism,’ alleges BJP
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Pune: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday while expressing satisfaction over the performance of the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government following two years of its completion, argued that his government had successfully turned the Covid-19 crisis into an opportunity.
In a statement to mark the completion of his two years in office, the Chief Minister, who is recuperating from a spine surgery, thanked the people for supporting his government in all its endeavours and said it was a true “people’s government”.
Thackeray, who said that despite the better part of the tenure of the three-party coalition (Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress) had been spent on managing the Covid-19 pandemic, it has nonetheless successfully turned this crisis into an opportunity.
“We did not panic either during man-made or natural calamities and our focus has remained on ensuring the welfare of the common public… There was no negativity in the government or the administration while tackling the pandemic,” Thackeray said, stating that there was a vast difference between the medical facilities and the health infrastructure that existed before the pandemic and today.
He further claimed that his three-party government had worked hard in increasing industrial investment, generating more employment and enhancing the State’s agriculture infrastructure while focusing on ensuring better water supply and improving sanitation facilities.
Shiv Sena MP and the party’s chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut mocked the disorientation of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) over the last two years since the Uddhav Thackeray-led government had been in power in the State.
“It has now become a joke that the opposition, which has not been able to overthrow the government in the last two years, keeps giving new dates for toppling the MVA. The Thackeray government has stood firm despite all efforts of the opposition to discredit and malign it,” said Raut, in his weekly column ‘Rokhthok’ in the Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana.
“Allegations of corruption and malpractice have been levelled against the MVA leaders, while cases like the Sushant Singh Rajput death have been politicized. This has followed the defamation of the Thackeray and Pawar families, intimidation of Sena MLAs and NCP leaders like former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s imprisonment…but the BJP has not been able to bring down the Thackeray government despite misusing central agencies and inciting communal riots in Amravati and elsewhere,” Raut said. He further added that what goodwill Devendra Fadnavis had formerly earned as former Chief Minister has been lost by him as Leader of the Opposition.
Taunting the BJP, the Sena MP mischievously noted that the early morning swearing-in of BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as the State’s Chief Minister in November 2019 (before the formation of the MVA government) also completed two years.
After the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Sena had severed its more than two decade old ties with its saffron partner the BJP after bitter wrangling over the Chief Minister’s post.
The then NCP leader Ajit Pawar had shocked the State with his intra-party ‘rebellion’ when he staged a coup on the morning of November 23 and was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister, with Fadnavis taking oath as Chief Minister.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s iron hand prevailed and the party failed to split despite his nephew’s (Ajit Pawar) temporary defection, the latter had resigned as Deputy Chief Minister in less than 80 hours. However, Ajit Pawar was sworn-in again as the Deputy Chief Minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA which came into being just a few days later.
“(NCP chief) Sharad Pawar, (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have given Thackeray a free hand and there is no interference,” Raut said in his weekly column and added that the BJP could not break even a single MLA from the ruling coalition.
Arguing that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was well-loved by the people of the State, he further remarked that the CM’s reassuring nature held the people in good stead in dark times of the Covid-19 crisis owing to the which the threat of the pandemic had receded considerably in Maharashtra today.
Meanwhile, lambasting the MVA for having failed Maharashtra’s farmers and its people on all counts, BJP leader and former State cabinet minister Ashish Shelar claimed that the three-party government had ignored every major issue till date and had allegedly not taken any people-centric decisions.
Shelar remarked that the two years’ of the MVA’s completion marked the culmination of the “pain and misery” afflicting Maharashtra’s public today.
“Instead, a lot of nonsense is poured daily through the pages of the Saamana to mislead the public…in reality, this is government built on nepotism revolving around ‘father (Uddhav Thackeray), son (Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray) and nephew (Ajit Pawar)’,” Shelar said while referring to the plum posts taken by the Thackeray and the Pawar families in the MVA.
