There is a need to check the brains of the leaders in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, state BJP president Chandrakant Patil said on Thursday.
He was reacting to a statement made by Maharashtra minister and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar that BJP veteran and Union minister Nitin Gadkari wanted to "teach a lesson" to his party colleague Devendra Fadnavis.
Mr Wadettiwar made this claim during an election rally held at Nanded in the state on Thursday. However, Gadkari himself denied that he had ever said anything against the former chief minister.
When asked about Mr Wadettiwar's claim, Mr Patil said while addressing a press meet in Parbhani district of Marathwada region, "There is a need to check the brains of MVA leaders. Nitin Gadkari is our mentor and cares for all of us. He is loyal to the party and its thinking. I don't know from where (Mr) Wadettiwar did this research."
The BJP leader also criticised NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik over the allegations he made against the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and its Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who is in news after he led a raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai coast earlier this month in which Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, was arrested.
Mr Malik has been criticising the NCB and Wankhede ever since the central agency took the action.
Mr Patil said, "Since the last 15-20 days, Nawab Malik doesn't know any other problem in the state. I think he has realised that the state government will collapse and therefore he is in search of a new job."
The BJP's state unit chief attacked the MVA government, saying that the cyclone-affected people in Maharashtra are yet to receive the financial assistance, while farmers in Marathwada are awaiting compensation for their crop losses.
"This is black Diwali for the farmers in Marathwada due to the policies of the state government...Figures show that 37.77 lakh hectares of farmlands were affected in Marathwada due to heavy rains this time. Nearly 11,000 hectares of agricultural land was washed away due to rains and it cannot grow any crops,” he said.
Mr Patil said that when the BJP was in power earlier, the government provided financial help to farmers without conducting any crop surveys.
"But this government is not taking that kind of decision for the Marathwada region. So we don't know when the farmers there will get aid. Also, the cyclone-hit people are yet to receive monetary help,” he said.
The BJP workers in the state will protest against the state government next month by placing black ribbons on their shirts for "black Diwali" for farmers this year due to its policies, he said
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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