Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has slammed Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and has dubbed Mr Modi’s “Gujarat model of development” as nothing, but a “marketing and PR” exercise that was being used by Mr Modi’s NRI friends.
“Crores of rupees is being spent on marketing and elements who are keen to pursue the corporate agenda through Modi are supporting him…Our neighbouring state, through a strong PR network, claims to be the most developed state,” said Mr Chavan. The CM made the comments while speaking at the two-day national council meeting of the All India Mahila Congress Committee.
Mr Chavan claimed that he has no issues with Gujarat’s claim. “We have no problem, it’s good to be competitive,” said the chief minister. However, he added that it doesn’t change the fact that Maharashtra still attracts the maximum investment from both, within the country and from abroad.
“Maharashtra is the premier state in the country in terms of state income and second in terms of per capita income after Haryana,” claimed Mr Chavan, adding that the state was performing well even under the economic and social parameters.
Mr Chavan accused Mr Modi of “theatrics” for making the claim that he had rescued 15,000 Gujaratis from the floods in Uttarakhand and said that Mr Modi’s lie was exposed.
The Maharashtra CM also accused the BJP of bringing up old issues because it has realised that it wont be able to come to power otherwise. “The public mood is against divisive and hate politics, BJP has again brought in issues which it had given up (earlier), like Ram Temple, Uniform Civil Code and repealment of Article 370, since they have no chance of electoral success,” said Mr Chavan. To further buttress his point about the popularity of the Congress, the CM pointed to the recent municipal results in Sangli where the Congress won by wresting power from the NCP, which was contesting independently.