Devendra Fadnavis' office said the chief minister chaired a meeting in Nagpur where relief measures for farmers were discussed.
The Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today slammed Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for skipping Assembly proceedings, alleging that the chief minister was busy attending a wedding at a time when farmers are reeling under the recent spell of unseasonal rain.
"The chief minister has insulted farmers by leaving the session midway to attend a wedding in the family of a rich businessman MP of the BJP," Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde said.
"At a time when lakhs of farmers are reeling under a drought and a recent spell of unseasonal rains are looking with hope towards a debate in the House about their plight, Fadnavis deemed it appropriate to leave Assembly proceedings midway and fly to Nagpur for the wedding," Mr Munde said.
But the Chief Minister rebutted these allegations. Speaking to NDTV, Mr Fadnavis said, "I was there in the House for 7 hours. If I called the officials to Mumbai, it would have stopped the survey work and as the agri cultural minister is to answer the debate, I took the time and visited Nagpur to avoid officials' trip to Mumbai."
Mr Fadnavis also tweeted to say:
The Chief Minister's Office also said that "Mr Fadnavis visited Nagpur to assess the crop damage due to unseasonal rain. He also chaired a meeting where relief measures were discussed. He went to other programmes after the meeting got over."
BJP's ruling ally Shiv Sena also rushed to the Maharashtra Chief Minister's defence.
"Everyone has sentiments. All public representatives have to attend to events like weddings and deaths in the family. It is a human sentiment and politics should not be brought into it," Sena lawmaker Gulabrao Patil said.