After Opposition, Sharad Pawar’s remarks, Uddhav Thackeray to visit Pune to review Covid-19 situation

Chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray will kickstart the first leg of his state tour today with a one-day visit to Pune to review the Covid-19 situation. Thackeray

Chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray will kickstart the first leg of his state tour today with a one-day visit to Pune to review the Covid-19 situation. Thackeray will review the pandemic situation and the measures taken to contain the infection in Western Maharashtra comprising Pune, Kolhapur, Solapur, Satara, and Sangli districts.

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The development comes after criticism by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) despite the CM’s assurances that he was using technology to monitor the situation from Mumbai.

Even Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said that a chief minister is expected to visit other parts of the state, but that was not happening in Maharashtra. Pawar said that he is more visible than Thackeray as he keeps travelling to check on the situation.

“Being head of the government, he [Thackeray] is expected to monitor the situation from one place, but that doesn’t mean he should do so permanently. In between, he is also expected to tour the state, by taking out some time from his schedule to meet people and take them in confidence, which [in this case] is yet to happen,” the veteran leader told a Marathi news channel.

At present, Pune is the worst affected among the cities in Maharashtra and is contributing more cases compared to Mumbai.

Thackeray has been reviewing the Covid-19 crisis at regular intervals by holding virtual meetings but had not visited any of the areas outside Mumbai. Considering his history of cardiac problems (angioplasty in 2016), Thackeray may have been opting on the side of caution by mostly operating from his home ‘Matoshree’ in Bandra and his official residence at ‘Varsha’ bungalow in Malabar Hill.

Dismissing the criticism over not stepping out, Thackeray told his party mouthpiece Saamana recently that he is using technology to take stock of the situation in the state.

“Technology has advanced to such an extent now. I am meeting officials and public representatives. I am covering the entire state and taking decisions. When it is important to visit physically, then you do go to that place. With video-conferencing, you can cover the entire state,” he said in the interview.

State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil had taken a dig at the CM over the issue. “Even a school student can say that our Uddhavji is not going anywhere,” Patil had told a Marathi news channel.

Pawar came to Thackeray’s defence, saying that the latter is working day and night to flatten the Covid-19 curve as a one-point agenda. Significantly, Pawar has been visiting various cities and districts along with his party colleague and health minister Rajesh Tope, to review preparations made by local authorities to contain the pandemic outbreak.

On Saturday, he was in Aurangabad to take stock of the situation. He also launched a campaign ‘Mission Zero — Aurangabad’ that aims to bring the city’s death rate down to zero.

On Friday, the 79-year old leader was in Nashik, and before that he visited Solapur district on July 20.

Leader of Opposition in the legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis and his counterpart in the legislative Council Pravin Darekar also visited several places to get a first-hand account of the Covid-19 situation from the ground.

Maharashtra has the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the country.