CM Uddhav Thackeray seeks PM’s intervention to halt ‘politicisation’ of Covid-19 by BJP in Maharashtra

During his meeting with Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray took a dig at the former’s party in the state for taking

During his meeting with Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, Maharashtra chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray took a dig at the former’s party in the state for taking to the streets over opening up of temples and other issues. The CM said that the “politicisation” may jeopardise the efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with PM Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and other chief minsters. (HT Photo)

Thackeray participated in a video conference convened by the PM to take stock of the Covid-19 pandemic situation in the eight states with highest cases on Tuesday morning. Thackeray, without naming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), requested the PM to “tame some of the political parties” who have been playing with the lives of people by resorting to the agitations on roads. He said that the PM should instruct these political parties not to play politics amid the global pandemic.

“The Prime Minister or the Union home minister should convene a joint meeting of all political parties to deliberate with them about the seriousness of the pandemic. The parties should be asked to cooperate with the state government. Following the protocols set by the Centre, we have been appealing to people to follow Covid-19 protocol by maintaining distance and wear masks but a few political parties have been resorting to [gathering] on the streets with the intention of gaining political mileage out of the challenge. This could ruin our efforts and lead to the second wave of the infection,” Thackeray said.

The CM was referring to the state unit of the BJP which had taken to the streets demanding for the reopening of religious places and other issues including inflated electricity bills.

Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan made a presentation on the current scenario of Covid-19 cases across the country, with a focus of the eight states with the highest case count. The meeting was also attended by Union home minister Amit Shah.

Thackeray told the PM that the daily caseload in the state has reduced to 4,700-5,000 cases from 24,000 in September. “When the cases in some of the states like Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal have increased, the decline in the cases in Maharashtra is high (76%). Our case fatality rate is indeed as high as 2.44, but we are trying to reduce it. We aim to bring the positivity rate below 5%, for which we have been aggressively testing and tracing suspected contacts. We have increased daily testing to around 80,000,” he said.

Thackeray also apprised the PM of the Maharashtra government’s outreach programme “My Family, My Responsibility”, and said that it helped in tracing suspected contacts and people with comorbidities. He also said that patients with post-Covid-19 symptoms are being closely monitored by the authorities.