‘Vikhe Patil criticising Thorat out of desperation’

The Shiv Sena, on Monday, said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil's criticism of Maharashtra Congress chief and political rival Balasaheb Thorat showed the saffron party leader's desperation of not being in power. An editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said Vikhe Patil's criticism of Thorat stemmed from the fact that despite joining the BJP ahead of the assembly elections last year for power, he had to remain in the opposition, while the rival Congress leader is in the government. Thorat, who is the state's revenue minister, met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray last week amidst talk of Congress sulking over not having enough say in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Thorat later said his party was not feeling sidelined and that the ruling alliance was stable.

After the meeting, Vikhe Patil, the former Congress leader who hails from Ahmednagar district as Thorat, had reportedly attacked the latter, saying he had never seen such a helpless for power state unit president of the party.

Thorat later retorted, saying he had seen Vikhe Patil bow before the previous chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis).

Hitting out at Vikhe Patil, the Shiv Sena, on Monday, said, Vikhe should stay away from politics if he has forgotten the rule that those who live in a house of glass should not throw stones at others." "There should be a code of conduct in politics as to who should be called helpless in politics. One feels amused when leaders like Vikhe label Thorat as helpless, the Marathi publication said.

Accusing Vikhe Patil of not being loyal to any party he joined, it recalled that he had joined the Shiv Sena, but quit it after enjoying power, and joined the Congress later to be a minister.

Vikhe Patil joined the BJP when he was still leader of the opposition. One has to work quite hard to inculcate such courage (not helplessness!). Thorat and others fell short of such an effort, the Sena said in sarcastic remarks. It said the Congress did not suffer any loss after Vikhe Patil joined the BJP, but the saffron party also did not gain in any way. Vikhe Patil could have been the Congress leader in the present state government had he not joined the BJP, but as luck would have it, that place went Thorat’s way, it said.