Uddhav Thackeray's absence was seen as a sign of strain between Governor and Government (File)
There is no conflict between Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and they share a father-son relationship, Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said after meeting with the Maharashtra Governor at the Raj Bhavan on Saturday.
The meeting came days after Mr Thackeray skipped a meeting called by Mr Koshyari to assess the state's preparedness to tackle Covid-19 crisis giving rise to reports that there was a conflict between the Governor and the Chief Minister.
“Their relationship is like that of a father and a son, and they will remain like that,” Mr Raut told reporters. A Raj Bhavan statement said the meeting was a “courtesy call”.
Though Mr Thackeray could not attend the coronavirus review meeting with the Governor on Wednesday, he had sent his confidant and Shiv Sena secretary, Milind Narvekar, and state's top bureaucrats.
His absence was seen as a sign of continued strain between the Governor and the six-month-old Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra, where the Bharatiya Janata Party is the principal Opposition party.
Last week, BJP leaders had visited the Governor and complained that the state government had failed in checking the spread of the deadly virus, which has infected over 1.25 lakh people in India and killed more than 3,500 people.
The BJP has also launched a statewide protest ‘Maharashtra Bachao' (Save Maharashtra). Images of children, with their face masks down, protesting the state government's “inability” to handle the Covid crisis are viral on the social media.
Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country at 44,582 with about 3,000 cases reported in 24 hours, and 1,517 overall deaths. Its capital Mumbai has the largest share of cases.
With inputs from PTI