Ex CM, revenue minister engage in a Twitter war

Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis engaged in a Twitter war on Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's controversial comment about a meeting between former Prime minister Indira Gandhi and don Karim Lala.

Fadnavis wondered whether the Congress was "funded by Mumbai's underworld". He also questioned if (at that time) it was the beginning of "criminalisation of politics" in the state and if the Congress "supported" those who attacked Mumbai.

The former CM sought an explanation from the Congress leadership over Raut's comments and asked why the party was silent on such "allegations" against their former leader.

Was the Congress in need of "muscle power" to win elections in those days? he further asked.

However, Thorat rebutted the allegations levelled by

Fadnavis. Thorat, who is the Revenue Minister, in his tweet said, Indira Gandhi was a great leader who took the lead to take strong steps against crimes in Mumbai and the rest of India in 1975. She demolished the smugglers' racket in Mumbai. In another tweet, Thorat said, ''PM Indira Gandhi sent Karim Lala, Haji Mastan, Yusuf Patel and several other criminals to jail.''

Further, Thorat alleged that the infamous underworld don met Devendra Fadnavis at Varsha when he was CM. He not only protected another criminal Munna Yadav, but appointed him on the government board. Fadnavis has no moral right to speak on this subject, he claimed.

However, Fadnavis denied it saying that, ''I never gave patronage to the underworld. Munna Yadav is a three-time elected corporator from Nagpur Municipal Corporation. You can’t divert the attention from the fact of the statement made by Sanjay Raut.”