Mumbai: Claiming the absence of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, the winter session of the state legislature is “inappropriate”, BJP president MLA Chandrakant Patil on Wednesday said that he should hand over his post to someone else till he recovers from sickness.
Patil made the comments while talking to reporters outside the Vidhan Bhawan ahead of the commencement of the session on Wednesday.
“It is natural for the CM to be absent as he is ill. Therefore, he should hand over the charge to somebody else without any hesitation,” Patil said, speaking to the media ahead of the commencement of the winter session.
This ‘someone else’ should preferably be a person from the Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena, or the chief minister’s son, state tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray, the Maharashtra BJP president further said. “This is because there is a possibility that the CM doesn’t trust Congress and the NCP,” Patil remarked.
Under the alliance, Shiv Sena Congress and Nationalist Congress Party govern the western state as constituents of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi together.
Patil, meanwhile, also said that the BJP ‘will not accept’ Thackeray’s absence from the legislature session.
However, in response to Chandrakant Patil, state water resources minister and NCP leader Jayant Patil said that CM’s health is fine and can come to the legislature anytime, though he is currently working from home. There is no need to give the charge to someone else.
The BJP and the Sena together governed Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019 and were victorious in the assembly elections held in November two years ago. The two went separate ways after an impasse over the chief minister’s post, with the Sena joining hands with the NCP and Congress to form the MVA.
Recently, Union home minister Amit Shah described the MVA as a ‘punctured autorickshaw,’ adding that the alliance represents the culture of ‘dealer, broker, and transfer.’
Last month, Union minister Narayan Rane said that by March next year, the BJP will have regained power in Maharashtra.
On Tuesday, Thackeray participated via video conferencing a cabinet meeting and a tea party for legislators on the eve of the session.
The CM had recently visited the Vidhan Bhavan, this was his first public appearance after the surgery.
After his discharge, Thackeray, who is also president of the Shiv Sena, has been working from his official residence Varsha and attending cabinet meetings virtually.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
