Uddhav inaugurates mobile medical unit service

MUMBAI,:

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray Friday inaugurated the National Urban Health Mission’s mobile medical unit service here. Each of these mobile medical units will have a doctor, a nurse, lab technician, pharmacist apart from the driver and will tour remote areas of the cities in which they will be deployed. Under the initiative, 13 such units would be pressed into service, five each in Mumbai and Nagpur and one each in Panvel, Kolhapur and Aurangabad. Speaking on the occasion, Thackeray said, “When we toured remote areas like Melghat and Gadchiroli, we were in the opposition. Now, I don’t know where we are.” He did not elaborate on the comment, which comes against the backdrop of criticism the Sena has faced for acting like an opposition party despite being a constituent of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

Senior political leader Yashwant Sinha had recently said, “It is time to make a strong ‘mahagatbandhan’ (grand alliance). If people do not even wake up now, it will be too late.”

The dissident Bharatiya Janata Party leader (BJP) from Bihar was addressing a meeting organised by the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Lucknow to celebrate the birth anniversary of Socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan.

Sinha, who has seen the rise and fall of alliances in his own state, was bang on. Last-minute alliances fail to turn around the electoral prospects of political parties as overnight bonhomie between estranged leaders does not translate into votes, especially when they represent castes locked in traditional social and political animosity.

Thus, the opposition’s dilemma and delay in firming up alliances is raising doubts over their avowed espousal of a credible alternative to the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.

Congress, the second pivot around which the country’s politics is expected to revolve, is seen

LUCKNOW: