Booing Takes Its Toll. Maharashtra Chief Minister Skips PM's Event

Nagpur/Ranchi: When the Prime Minister inaugurated a mega project today, a 30-kilometre metro rail for Nagpur, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan was missing.

"I am missing Prithviraj Chavan," said Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Urban Development. "It would have been better had he attended. We should keep politics aside and work as team India," he added.

The Nagpur metro is being funded and developed by the Centre in partnership with the state government.

Mr Chavan's no-show comes after he was booed last week at two appearances that he made with the PM. This evening, he performed the puja to officially launch the construction of a bridge over the Godavari River in the Nanded district of Maharashtra, pictures of which were tweeted by his office in an apparent rebuff to the Centre.

BJP sources say that Mr Naidu phoned Mr Chavan this morning urging him to attend the ceremony, but the chief minister said he would not be able to make it, with sources in his office saying that the invitation from the Centre arrived as late as yesterday.

Another chief minister, Hemant Soren of Jharkhand, was also heckled this morning while he was on stage with Mr Modi to inaugurate a major power project. A piqued Mr Soren said, "The PM should learn from this... it is a black day for the federal system." Mr Modi was seen urging the crowd, which was booing Mr Soren, to pipe down. (We Are Not Unlike, Said Chief Minister to PM. Then Booing Began.)

On Tuesday, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress leader and chief minister of Haryana, vowed he "will never share the stage again" with the PM because crowds booed him and cheered Mr Modi at a public event. (Read)

The Congress says BJP workers are inciting audiences in states where elections are coming up to humiliate Congress leaders. The BJP denies any wrong-doing. "He is not the PM of the BJP," said party leader Nalin Kohli. "Mr Modi is the PM of India, and if people take his name with enthusiasm, I think it is a matter of pride." (Cheers for PM Narendra Modi, Jeers for Three Chief Ministers)