Uddhav targets Shinde for campaigning in Telangana as rains hit crops in Maharashtra

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday hit out at Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde over his visit to neighbouring Telangana for poll campaigning while farmers in his home state suffered crop losses due to unseasonal rains. Reacting to the criticism, Shinde said the state government has taken cognisance of the losses, and `those who ran the government through Facebook Live' should not preach to others.

Speaking at a news conference, Thackeray demanded that a cabinet meeting be held immediately to discuss crop losses due to the rains in the last four-five days, and farmers be given assistance at the earliest.

Six people lost lives due to rain-related incidents while 100 cattle also perished, the former chief minister said.

Grape growers and onion farmers in particular were hit hard, he said, asking what did the state cabinet do after the weather department gave an advance warning of unseasonal showers.

Preliminary information suggested that crops over nearly one lakh hectares in Marathwada, Vidarbha and north Maharashtra were affected, Thackeray said.

''There is no government in Maharashtra as everyone is busy campaigning. It is time to change the government,'' the Sena (UBT) chief added.

''A person who does not bother about his own house and goes to another state to campaign for another party is not fit to run a government and he has no right to be in power,'' he added.

Shinde visited Telangana on Tuesday to campaign for the BJP. Assembly polls will be held in Telangana on November 30.

The Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the BJP are allies in Maharashtra.

Deputy chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar too were ''missing in action'', Thackeray further said at the news conference.

Reacting to his predecessor's diatribe, Shinde told reporters, ''Those who ran the government through Facebook Live should not preach to us. Our ministers, MPs are meeting farmers in the fields and trying to reach out to them. District collectors have been directed to conduct panchnamas (site inspections) immediately.'' Shinde and his faction of the Shiv Sena have often taken jibes at Thackeray for `not stepping out of house' and instead relying on online interaction when he was chief minister during 2019 to 2022.