CM Shinde skips Shah’s meet on Manipur, attends programme with Sharad Pawar at Maratha Mandir

The chief minister’s office (CMO) said Shinde had to cancel his trip owing to bad weather conditions. The development comes a week after the state water supply and sanitation minister Gulabrao Patil of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena completed a train journey with the NCP supremo from Mumbai to Jalgaon last Thursday

Mumbai: Chief minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday skipped the all-party meeting in New Delhi called by the union home minister Amit Shah on the situation of Manipur crisis which has been going on for over 45 days.

Mumbai: Maratha Mandir Trust organization celebrates Platinum Jubilee year function in the presence of NCP president Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde , BJP minister chandrakant patil, Minister Uday Samant in Mumbai on Saturday, 24 June 2023. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande)

Instead, Shinde attended the 75th anniversary of Maratha Mandir, a charitable organisation headed by NCP chief Sharad Pawar who too gave the meeting in Delhi a skip.

The chief minister’s office (CMO) said Shinde had to cancel his trip owing to bad weather conditions. The development comes a week after the state water supply and sanitation minister Gulabrao Patil of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena completed a train journey with the NCP supremo from Mumbai to Jalgaon last Thursday.

“The CM had to cancel his visit because of bad weather and thus he could not go to Delhi,” said a CMO official.

According to the plans, the chief minister, who was in Dare, his native village in Satara district for the last three days, was supposed to fly for Delhi around 10.30am from Pune but could not do so owing to bad weather conditions, the officials said. It has been raining heavily in some parts of the state.

CM Shinde was accompanied by state industries minister Uday Samant. BJP leader and higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil too attended the function.

On June 1, Pawar met the chief minister at his official residence to invite him to the event that was held at Maratha Mandir Auditorium at Mumbai Central. Apart from several educational institutions and a hospital, the charitable organisation also runs the iconic Maratha Mandir Theatre.

In April and May, Samant also met the veteran NCP leader twice to apprise him about the police action and the government’s stand on protests against the proposed oil refinery at Ratnagiri.

Pawar deputed Narendra Verma, national general secretary and Soram Iboyaima Singh, Manipur NCP president to represent NCP in the all-party meeting.

Shinde-led Shiv Sena informed that the party chief deputed the state school education minister Deepak Kesarkar to attend the all-party meeting. “The chief minister could not go to Delhi but school education minister Deepak Kesarkar attended the all-party meeting from Shiv Sena on his behalf,” said Kiran Pawaskar, spokesperson, Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena.