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Maharashtra parties promise not to politicise floods, then do just that a week later

From distributing relief packages with leaders’ photos on them to talking up their own relief work, all Maharashtra parties have politicised the flood crisis.

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Mumbai: Last week, all political parties in Maharashtra temporarily halted their poll campaigns two months before the state assembly elections as parts of Maharashtra were battling severe distress because of heavy rains and floods.

The parties had made it a point to publicly state that no one should try and gain political mileage from the disaster and, instead, focus should be on flood relief work.

But, over the past five days, they’ve done exactly the opposite — right from distributing relief packages with their leaders’ photos on them, targeting each other over the crisis to talking up their own parties’ relief work.

This, as the death toll has crossed 40 and over four lakh people have been moved to transit camps so far. While the relief efforts have been dominating the headlines, much of the discourse has also been about political one-upmanship.

“This government is inefficient and ignorant of people’s plight. When the flood-affected people started getting vocally upset, this government started its acrobatics of showing how much it is doing to help,” Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said.

“To criticise what is going on and reveal the arrogance, inefficiency and the true political intentions of this government is just the opposition’s job.”

Keshav Upadhye, Maharashtra BJP’s media in-charge, retorted that the opposition was making claims based on distorted data. “The opposition has been targeting the government based on false and incomplete information,” he said. “Our priority is flood relief work and rehabilitation of people. The people can see who is helping and who is indulging in politics.”

Picture wars

The opposition not only targeted the Devendra Fadnavis-led government for a delayed response to the crisis in districts such as Kolhapur and Sangli but also released photos of flood relief packages on which BJP legislators had printed their own photos along with Fadnavis’ picture.

The Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Dhananjay Munde, leader of opposition in the state legislative council, released pictures of packets of grains with stickers sporting photos of BJP MLA Suresh Halvankar and CM Fadnavis, slamming the party.

The Maharashtra Congress too tweeted from its official handle, “This government, which only does publicity, could not resist the temptation of indulging in self publicity even in the aid being given to the flood affected…”

BJP workers, in response, released pictures of NCP Maharashtra president Jayant Patil distributing relief packages with his name on them. The NCP dismissed the allegation, saying the boxes were from the food packets that Patil distributed on the occasion of his father, Rajarambapu Patil’s, birth anniversary on August 1.

“In this flood-hit situation, we could not find packaging material anywhere. That’s why we used these boxes. There was no intention to seek publicity while giving aid,” Patil tweeted.

‘Disaster tourism’

BJP Minister Girish Mahajan faced flak from the opposition after a selfie video, clicked by a member of his entourage while the minister was touring flood-ravaged areas, went viral on social media. Mahajan was seen smiling and waving in the video, drawing sharp criticism from the Congress and NCP for “flood tourism”.

The NCP also released a cartoon showing Mahajan sitting in a boat, smiling and clicking a selfie, while a line of people and cattle are drowning in the water behind him.

Following the opposition’s criticism, the BJP released its own video where a handful of people are seen wading shoulder-deep through the flood-waters from a distance.

According to the party, one of them was Mahajan who had to swim to reach a flood-hit village. “This is how BJP earns sabka vishwas,” Maharashtra BJP said in a tweet with the video.

The Congress says the video only strengthens its claims. “Showing a minister wading through flood-waters doesn’t show his gallantry,” the Congress’ Sawant said. “It only shows the complete collapse of the administration that the situation has reached this stage.”

But the BJP’s Upadhye claimed that Mahajan’s video was taken out of context.

“The leader was seeing off some officials who had accompanied him on the inspection. Similarly, regarding the stickers in food packets, the BJP MLA being the chairman of the local ration committee had only arranged for the supplies. It wasn’t he, but the local groups, who put his and the CM’s photo on the packets.”

Membership drives, defections

The Congress-NCP and the Shiv Sena-BJP also clashed over on ground poll preparation in the backdrop of the floods.

The Shiv Sena last week inducted Shekhar Gore, brother of Congress MLA Jaykumar Gore, bolstering its presence in Satara, a district neighbouring Sangli, drawing censures from the opposition.

Meanwhile, BJP’s Prakash Javadekar Saturday launched a membership drive at Hadapsar in the Pune district, prompting the NCP to taunt the union minister. “Prakash Javadekar has the responsibility of the environment portfolio, but seems to be unaware of the changing environment in Maharashtra,” the party tweeted.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray indirectly mocked at how political leaders across parties made a beeline to the crisis areas and publicised their visits.

Taking questions from the media while dispatching relief material from Mumbai to Maharashtra’s inundated areas, Thackeray Sunday said, “I will not go to show empty, dry sympathy. The leaders who have gone must have done work as per their capacity. I will be grateful if you could show our work before asking questions.”


Also read: Amit Shah to conduct aerial survey as death toll in Karnataka floods rises to 31


 

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