Uddhav taunts Raj: ‘How can people think of polls at this hour’

A day after the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray demanded that the upcoming state Assembly elections be postponed to next year, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray hit back at him on Sunday. Taking a dig at his cousin, Uddhav said he wondered how people could think of polls at such a “critical” time.

“I don’t understand how one can think of elections in such a critical situation,” said Uddhav. He said that while he and his party workers are providing relief material to the flood-affected regions, Raj had not visited any of these areas and should not give “false sympathies.” There should be no politics at the cost of those who are affected, Uddhav added.

On Saturday, Raj had sought the Election Commission’s intervention to postpone the polls, scheduled to take place around September-October, citing the floods in Kolhapur and Sangli. “The water may recede in the next two to four days, but there is so much damage done that it will need at least six months to limp back to normalcy…The state needs to concentrate fully on citizens’ rehabilitation instead of focusing on polls,” Raj had said.

Asked if the state government should declare the flood a national calamity, Uddhav said, “I do not want to get caught up in wordplay. I give more importance to carrying out relief work. Whatever is necessary should be done. Whether one calls it an emergency or not is not the question… [We] need to be with people affected by the floods.”

On Sunday, the Sena dispatched a team of 100 doctors, along with medicines, food grains, clothes, blankets, bottled drinking water and other relief materials, to Kolhapur, Sangli and Raigad. The essential supplies will be sent to Wai, Patan and Mahad, said state industries minister Subhash Desai.

Meanwhile, Uddhav refused to comment on the latest controversy involving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after food packets being distributed were found with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and MLA Suresh Halvankar’s photos on them. Responding to allegations from the opposition parties that the state responded late, Uddhav said he did not want to indulge in politics.