Patole defends party over senior Maha Cong leaders missing Lata funeral

Facing criticism over prominent Maharashtra Congress leaders and ministers not attending Lata Mangeshkar's last rites here, the party's state unit president, Nana Patole, on Monday said some of them could not make it because they were down with COVID-19 while others were out of Mumbai.

He said Mumbai Congress president Bhai Jagtap was present during the final rites of the legendary singer at the Shivaji Park in Dadar on Sunday evening.

Responding to a question over absence of state Congress leaders at Mangeshkar's funeral, Patole said, "(Party ministers) Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan, Amit Deshmukh are infected with coronavirus.'' The state Congress president said his sister's mother-in-law passed away and he had gone there to attend the funeral.

"(Congress ministers) Aslam Sheikh was out of Mumbai, so was Varsha Gaikwad. Since it was a weekend, many had scheduled tours. Many of us did not have connectivity to reach Mumbai which is why we could not attend the last rites," Patole said.

The Congress MLA said he will soon meet the Mangeshkar family.

The 92-year Bharat Ratna recipient, who died early on Sunday, was cremated with full state honours and her last rites were attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, NCP president Sharad Pawar, MNS chief Raj Thackeray and prominent personalities from Bollywood and other fields.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)