The executive committee meeting of the Congress on Thursday, which was called to discuss the preparedness of party workers for the forthcoming elections, turned into an anti-Narendra Modi discussion, with senior leaders slamming the Gujarat chief minister left, right and centre.
Senior Maharashtra Congress leaders, including the chief minister, condemned Mr Modi for claiming to have saved 15,000 Gujaratis in Uttarakhand during the flood tragedy.
The party had called its first executive committee meeting at Y.B. Chavan Centre on Thursday, after the appointments of Mohan Prakash as Maharashtra incharge and MPs Gurudas Kamat and Mukul Wasnik as general secretaries. Except Union minister of state Milind Deora and MP Priya Dutt, all senior leaders and ministers of the party were present at the meeting.
“This is an unfortunate incident and no one should try and gain political mileage from the situation. Hence, the whole country is condemning him,” said state CM Prithviraj Chavan said, while referring to the Uttarakhand tragedy without naming Mr Modi.
Mr Chavan was referring to a media report which claimed that the Gujarat CM went to Uttarakhand with a team and saved lives of 15,000 Gujaratis.
Mr Wasnik, Mr Prakash and MP Sanjay Nirupam also came down heavily on Mr Modi. Mr Nirupam said that the Army jawans could not save the lives of more than 12,000 people in a day, but this “Superman” and “Rambo” saved 15,000 people in just five hours. “It is very difficult to understand on what grounds the claim was made,” he said.
Mr Wasnik said that almost 83 choppers were pressed into rescue operation with each of them making 1,200 rounds each, to save lives of thousands of people. “However, this man wanted to take political advantage of the tragedy…he should be condemned across the country,” he said.
Taking potshots at the Gujarat CM, Mr Prakash said that a “gentleman has come to Mumbai today to teach Maharashtra about good governance, ignoring the fact that his home minister Amit Shah was externed from Gujarat by a local court. His another minister Maya Kodnani was sentenced to 28 years of jail”.