MUMBAI, Jan 31: Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Friday alleged that as many as 65 percent of ministers in the Mahayuti government in the state were “tainted”.
Most ministers were yet to start working though the cabinet was sworn in last month, he told reporters in Nagpur.
“Sixty-five percent of the ministers are tainted,” he said, without elaborating.
Soybean, cotton, onion and dairy farmers were in distress, and unemployment was at its peak, he said, accusing the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP government of being indifferent to their problems.
To a question about speculation that former Congress MLA from Pune, Ravindra Dhangekar, and a few other party leaders were likely to join the Shiv Sena led by deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Patole said, “Politics is business for some people. They go with whoever is in power. But the people are with the Congress.”
Notably, Dhangekar, when asked by reporters elsewhere about his meeting with Shinde earlier in the day, denied that he was going to leave the Congress. He met Shinde for some work related to his former assembly constituency, he said.
Patole, reportedly, does not enjoy a good equation with the former MLA.
To another question, Patole said the functioning of the Election Commission was not transparent.
The Congress leader also criticised the implementation of the government’s `Ladki Bahin’ scheme under which a financial assistance of Rs 1,500 per month is provided to eligible women.
Women living outside the state and even some Bangladeshi nationals have got its benefit by providing fake identity documents, he claimed. (PTI)