Shiv Sena targeted the NCP for ignoring jailed ex-Deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal. (File)
Taking a jibe at the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leadership, the Shiv Sena today said that the party had ignored its former leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who was arrested in March on corruption charges, while even the BJP's Pankaja Munde went to meet him on "humanitarian grounds" in the JJ Hospital where he is recuperating.
Mr Bhujbal, Maharashtra's former deputy Chief Minister, was admitted to the hospital a few days ago, after he fell ill. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March and lodged in the Arthur Road Jail.
"We feel sorry for the state Mr Bhujbal is in today. The NCP, for which he wronged the late Sena chief Bal Thackeray, has left him in the lurch. We thus feel surprised that Pankaja Munde had the courage to visit him in the hospital to inquire about his health, while the NCP leadership was missing," an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana said.
"Pictures of a frail looking Mr Bhujbal are heart-wrenching, but the NCP bosses have displayed a complete lack of empathy," the editorial said while alluding to his days as a staunch Shiv Sena leader.
"Everyone was praising him in his good day. All his bosses were in awe of the speeches he made in the assembly. But today, nobody has gone to meet a tired Mr Bhujbal," the editorial said.
"He is behind bars for corruption and economic offences, while other NCP leaders are out and enjoying themselves. They should have met him to inquire about his life inside jail and facilities provided there," it said.
The Sena said that the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde would have shown the same courage as his daughter and the state's Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde did by visiting Mr Bhujbal in his weakened state.
Ms Munde's visit sparked speculation that it was a strategy to showcase her "backward card" by calling on Mr Bhujbal who himself belongs to the OBC category.