Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole. (File)Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole hit out at Eknath Shinde saying that the chief minister is the “BJP’s puppet” who read its script during the Dussehra rally at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) ground Wednesday. He stated the crowd at the venue was mercenary and the attendees left the venue without even listening to his speech.
Patole urged Shinde to not talk about the Congress saying that the chief minister does not have the “address of his party” and that he should not try to hide his sins by blaming the Congress.
“The people of the state saw yesterday that the chief minister of the state is a puppet of the BJP. Shinde read a script written by the BJP in support of his betrayal (of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government),” Patole said.
“Shinde criticised the Congress in the meeting. His betrayal is an internal matter for him and Shiv Sena. But we will not tolerate Shinde, his ministers and MLAs repeatedly criticising the Congress to cover the sin of their rebellion. He should not worry about who is or should be the president of the Congress party. He does not know what his own party is, it is ridiculous for him to talk about the Congress,” Patole said.
“The Congress is the oldest and the most experienced party in the country which played a major role in bringing the country independence and making the country stand tall in the world. Eknath Shinde’s performance is nothing. His achievement is to act on the BJP’s warning and implement Delhi’s (Centre’s) order,” Patole adeed.
Patole said that under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena joined hands with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in 2019 to form the MVA government for the benefit of the people by keeping communalist forces out of power. “Eknath Shinde and his 40 MLAs were also in that government. If the Congress’s support was so unwanted, why did he not dare to come out at the same time? Doesn’t Eknath Shinde know the legacy of the late Balasaheb Thackeray? He supported Congress candidates Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee for the President’s post. Did Shinde dare to protest then?”
Patole added that Shinde gave in to his own political ambitions as well as the BJP’s advice and that he should stop blaming the Congress.