CM faces barbs over poll-preparedness at meeting with legislators

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan was at the receiving end of several sarcastic remarks on Monday, when city Congress legislators commented on the lack of progress on matters concerning the city, which will go to the polls in four months.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan was at the receiving end of several sarcastic remarks on Monday, when city Congress legislators commented on the lack of progress on matters concerning the city, which will go to the polls in four months.

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The legislators were unhappy that Chavan invited them to state guest house Sahyadri, to discuss issues that were talked about in earlier meetings.

“The CM hasn’t decided upon most of the matters that we discussed with him earlier. Unfortunately, the results are not forthcoming. So we decided to gang up in a way which would not hurt anyone’s feelings,” said a senior MLA, who led the charge in the meeting, on the condition of anonymity. “We decided to stump him with googlies,” he added.

Bandra MLA Baba Siddique opened the discussion saying: “The state and central government are working so effectively. We shouldn’t worry much about poll results and should instead discuss who should be Mayor,” he said.

Another MLA told HT, on condition of anonymity: “Before Chavan could react to this, state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre stepped in to set the house in order. But other speakers continued to punctuate their speech with subtle barbs.”

The meeting evoked a fractured mandate on forging pre-poll alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party for the Mumbai polls.