Mumbai: BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Friday led the opposition party’s state-wide protest against the “failure” of the Shiv Sena-headed Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to curb the coronavirus spread in Maharashtra.
Fadnavis along with senior colleague Vinod Tawde and Mumbai BJP president Mangal Prabhat Lodha held protest at the state party office in Nariman point, holding placards and sporting black face mask and black ribbon.
Another BJP leader Ashish Shelar, accompanied by party workers, was at a party office in the suburbs where they staged a ‘dharna’ holding placards with messages critical of the MVA government over its handling of the COVID-19 crisis in Maharashtra which has recorded more than 40,000 cases so far.
The BJP had given a call for “Maharashtra Bachao” agitation asking party workers to protest against the government outside their homes adhering to social distancing norms amid the coronavirus-enforced lockdown.
BJP leaders stood outside party offices and took part in the protest. The agitation lasted for an hour and ended around noon.
The opposition party has alleged the Uddhav Thackeray administration has “failed” to curb the spread of the viral infection in the state.
Meanwhile, the Congress, the Shiv Sena and the NCP – all constituents of the ruling coalition – hit back at the BJP on their social media platforms.
State Congress spokesman Sachin Sawant wondered how the BJP can think of politics at the time of a crisis when doctors, nurses, police and the administration are fighting an enemy called coronavirus.
“Ahmedabad (till) Thursday had recorded 9,449 positive cases and 619 deaths. Will the BJP do a Gujarat Bachao andolan and ask for the President’s rule in the state,” he asked.
NCP leaders used the hashtag MaharashtradrohiBJP (Maharashtra treacherous BJP) to hit out at the opposition party.
The Shiv Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, said the BJP’s agitation against the Thackeray-led government at the time of a health crisis will boomerang on the opposition party.
Indecisiveness and strategic errors of the Maharashtra government have aggravated the COVID-19 crisis in the state, Fadnavis said on Thursday and accused Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of over dependence on bureaucracy as he is “scared” of taking initiatives.