Nagpur: After his controversial remarks against alliance partners earlier, Congress state president Nana Patole backtracked and blamed BJP for misusing the media to target him.
Speaking to the media, the Sakoli MLA said he had said nothing controversial and if chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and deputy CM Ajit Pawar invite him for a meeting in this regard, he would be happy to visit them. “There’s absolutely no differences between the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents. If there is any confusion, we will discuss it and get it resolved. We will continue our full tenure of five years. All this hype is created by the BJP, which is our only opposition. It’s planting wrong news through the media, as it was getting apprehensive of Congress’ growing strength across the nation.”
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of destroying the country’s economy, he reiterated that the grand old party would continue to protest across the country against skyrocketing prices of petrol, diesel, and gas, and inflation. “We’re increasingly getting support from the people that is unnerving the opposition. Even at our midnight meetings, people enthusiastically participate in large numbers, as they’re fed up with the central government. The Modi-led government is responsible for the deaths of citizens, who failed to get vaccines in time. If a city like Mumbai is facing a big shortage of vaccines, leave aside the rural areas.”
On Congress ministers, including his predecessor Balasaheb Thorat and energy minister Nitin Raut regularly meeting with the high command in Delhi, he said those were routine visits and didn’t necessarily mean that they were lodging any complaint. “Thorat is revenue minister, and he needs to visit the capital for his work. Similarly, Raut is chairman of All India Congress SC Cell, and he too needs to interact with Gandhis in this regard. There’s no differences among us, as speculated by the media. It’s again the opposition which is spreading these lies.”
Endorsing health minister Rajesh Tope’s views, the former speaker said even the Congress wanted to ease restrictions, but the threat of a second wave continued with nearly 10,000 Covid-19 cases still active in Maharashtra. “The centre has miserably failed to provide vaccination to the entire country, due to its wrong policies. We’ve around 12 to 13 crore population, of which not even half is inoculated. If our population is vaccinated, we too could have relaxed restrictions and started schools and colleges like western countries,” he said.
