MUMBAI: As the poll campaign for Zilla Parishad and Municipal Corporations is gearing up in Maharashtra, a video of senior Congress leaders being served food in golden plates at the residence of a local party worker at Osmanabad has gone viral across the state.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan, leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patik, former Union home ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde and Shuvraj Patil were some of the prominent leaders who were at Yengur in Osmanabad to kickstart poll campaign for ZP elections on Friday. Reportedly, some local party workers had thrown a royal fest in honour of the leaders, where they were served in golden plates.
According to reports, the arrangements for the event were made by a tainted contractor and the golden plates were specially brought in from Nanded.
The propriety of such royal feast is being questioned especially at the backdrop of former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan turning down a similar extravaganza by party workers in neighboring Beed a few days back.
Interestingly, the leaders who participated in the function at Osmanabad had raised issues like drought condition hitting the part of the state for past few years, farmers' suicides, ill effects of demonetisation etc at the poll campaign.
MPCC president Chavan, however, denied reports that party leaders were served the food in golden plates. "I do not know whose imagination it was," he said. However, he declined to comment on the video.