PM Modi 'humbled' his allies from Maharashtra: Cong

New Delhi, Jun 10 (PTI) The Congress on Monday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "humbled" his allies from Maharashtra in picking his council of ministers and said he has started his "politics of vendetta even before the NDA loses" the upcoming assembly elections in the state.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said NCP leader Praful Patel has "refused" an offer from "one-third pradhan mantri" to be in his ministry stating that the offer is a demotion.

"He (Patel) should know that a special feature of the BJP-brand washing machine is that it has various modes '“slow, fast, and super-fast'. He may not have made the cut. On the other hand, Ravneet Bittu clearly is on super-fast mode, even after having lost Ludhiana to his former party," the Congress leader said on X.

"The other man who finds himself out of favour is Mr. Eknath Shinde. He has only got one MoS (independent charge) having less stake in this government than Mr. Jitan Ram Manjhi, Mr. Chirag Paswan, and Mr. HD Kumaraswamy, despite having more MPs than any of them," Ramesh said.

First, the prime minister takes away all investments from Maharashtra to Gujarat and now he humbles his allies from Maharashtra, the very same ones that he created by splitting two parties, he said.

"He (Modi) has started his politics of vendetta even before the NDA loses the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections," Ramesh alleged.

In the recently held Lok Sabha elections, BJP fared poorly as it could win only nine seats in Maharashtra, compared to the 2019 tally of 23 constituencies out of the total 48. Shiv Sena led by Shinde bagged seven seats and Ajit Pawar-led NCP just one. PTI ASK ANB ANB