Sanjay Raut blames Centre for rising coronavirus cases in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Punjab

Mumbai, Apr 12: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday blamed the Centre for the rise in coronavirus positive cases in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Punjab. Speaking to reporters, Raut said Maharashtra had followed every instruction issued by the Centre, and the latter must act sensitively and cautiously and stop blaming states.

Ten states- Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan- have shown a steep rise in daily COVID-19 cases, accounting for 83.02 per cent of the new infections, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

"If Maharashtra and the other two states (Punjab and Chhattisgarh) has failed, the first failure is that of the Centre since the country is fighting the war against the virus under prime minister Narendra Modi's leadership," he said, questioning why only non-BJP ruled states were being singled out as failures.

"Has the coronavirus disappeared in states which have a BJP chief minister? The Centre should provide vaccines and Remdesivir to Maharashtra. Everyone has seen how Remdesivir is available in BJP offices in Gujarat but it is not (made) available to Maharashtra," Raut claimed.

He said Maharashtra BJP leaders must condemn these attempts to "malign the image of the state", or else they have "no business to do politics in the state".