Chavan's decision to skip PM's function "unfortunate": BJP

Mumbai, Aug 21: The BJP in Maharashtra on Thursday termed as "unfortunate" Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's decision to boycott Prime Minister Narendra Modi's programme in Nagpur and said Congress should introspect why people are "unhappy" with the state leadership.

Modi is scheduled to perform 'bhumi-pujan' of a Metro project in Nagpur today. "When the Chief Minister (Chavan) went to Vidarbha, he was booed by farmers. They were not BJP workers. The Congress needs to introspect why is the common man unhappy with the state leadership," BJP leader Vinod Tawde said.

"It is surprising and unfortunate that the CM is boycotting the PM's programme. I had even called him yesterday and asked him to attend the programme," said the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council.

Taking an aggressive stand on the incidents of heckling at functions attended by Modi in Congress-ruled states, Chavan had yesterday said he would not attend today's function in Nagpur. At a function in Solapur on Saturday, where the Prime Minister inaugurated four-lane National Highway Number 9, Chavan had to stop speaking midway as alleged BJP supporters started chanting Modi's name.

"The federal structure of the country has been undermined at the programmes in Congress-ruled states where the PM was present recently," Chavan had said. BJP state spokesperson Madhav Bhandari also slammed the CM's decision, saying it was an "insult" to the people of Vidarbha region.

"It is inappropriate for him (Chavan) to boycott today's event. The Congress has always done injustice to the people of Vidarbha. Today, by boycotting the development work undertaken for the people of the region, they have once again insulted the people," he said.

During a previous event, Chavan, while speaking in front of the PM, tried to give a political speech which was not liked by the people and hence they reacted to it. But, the Congress has failed to understand the feelings of the common man, he charged.

"They are boycotting the event in Nagpur only because they are miffed with the people for giving all 10 Lok Sabha seats (in Vidarbha region) to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance during the recently held (general) elections," Bhandari said.

PTI