A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reminding him about the commitment of the coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on the Common Minimum Program (CMP), the Shiv Sena discarded any possibility of a rift and clarified that the letter would bring forth matters which were on the backtrack due to pandemic.
Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said on Saturday that Ms. Gandhi is a chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and has also contributed to the formation of the State government.
“The CMP is the agenda of the MVA government for the welfare of the downtrodden section of the society. The government and our Chief Minister are working towards that direction. The pandemic may have put certain issues on backburner. But we are coming back on track and now focusing on the CMP,” said Mr. Raut.
He discarded the allegations of opposition BJP that the Sena is under pressure from the Congress which is playing pressure politics through this letter of Ms Gandhi.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president and state’s Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said that the letter from Ms. Gandhi is not of resentment but about continuing the process of dialogue. “Our stand has always been in favour of upliftment of poor and deprived sections of the society. The letter was part of a dialogue on how such measures can be taken. It has nothing to do about resentment,” he said.
Ms Gandhi’s letter focused on the CMP for betterment of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities, and said, “The budget allocation for the development of SC/ST communities should be proportionate to their share in the population. Focus may be on the schemes that benefit SC/ST communities to bring them on par with rest of the society at the earliest.”
