Day after controversy, Rahul Gandhi lauds Maharashtra work on Covid-19

Congress president Rahul Gandhi (PTI)
MUMBAI: A day after his statement that the Congress was “only supporting” and “not running” the Maharashtra government sparked talk of a rift in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Rahul Gandhi spoke to state environment minister and son of CM Uddhav Thackeray, Aaditya, saying “Maharashtra is doing good work on tackling Covid-19” and called for a further increase in testing.

Some reports said Rahul also spoke to the CM on the political situation but there was no confirmation of that.

Sources said Rahul sought information from Aaditya on the enforcement of Lockdown 4.0 and measures to be taken for battling Covid-19. Gandhi reportedly suggested to Aaditya that in view of the huge population in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, there was a need to scale up testing. “Certainly, the increased number of cases is a cause for concern, but we should increase screening and testing. Maharashtra is doing good work,” he told Aaditya.

Rahul had said late on Tuesday that his statement in the morning had been twisted for political reasons. State revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat of the Congress and NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said there was no threat to the MVA government.