Our Correspondent
Mumbai, May 27:
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray heading three party (Maha Vikas Aghadi) Maharashtra Government got a little relief after he had a telephonic conversation with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, about measures being taken to combat ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, on Wednesday.
Rahul Gandhi assured full support to the government and scotched rumors that the Congress may pull out of the government, since it had no “respectable” role in the state government, sources here said.
On Tuesday, in a media interaction Rahul Gandhi had tried to distance away from the spread of the virus in Maharashtra saying that Congress is not in a decision making role in the state. He had said that there is a difference between running the government and supporting the government. The Congress can be considered to be in a decision making role in states like Punjab and Rajasthan, but not in Maharashtra. Earlier. another senior Congress leader from Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan had also remarked that the Government in Maharashtra was a “Shiv Sena” Government and not the “Congress Government”.
Thackeray assured Gandhi that the suggestions by the Congress will be given due importance. The Congress has several important ministries in Maharashtra including Education, energy, public works, revenue etc.
The efforts by Opposition BJP to “expose” shortcomings of Maharashtra Government in handling “COVID-19” are already on by submitting petitions to the Governor, addressing media through video conferencing etc.
In the meanwhile Thackeray held a meeting of all the constituents of his government at his official residence “Varsha” in South Mumbai on Wednesday. The meeting was on at the time of filing this report.
