NAGPUR: Local Congress workers staged a demonstration outside Union minister Nitin Gadkari's residence in Nagpur on Thursday, demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly 'insulting" Maharashtra by suggesting that it had caused the spread of COVID-19 in other states.
Heavy security was deployed outside Gadkari's residence on Wardha road in the wake of the protest.
Nagpur is the hometown of senior BJP leader Gadkari, who is currently in Delhi.
Local Congress MLA Vikas Thakre and other party workers raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him "Maharashtra virodhi" (anti-Maharashtra).
Workers of the BJP also gathered at the place to counter the Congress's protest.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday said his party will continue to stage protests every day until the prime minister apologises to the people of Maharashtra.
During a debate in the Lok Sabha on Monday, the prime minister said the Congress had "crossed all limits" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He had alleged that during the first wave, when people were following lockdowns and COVID-19 norms, the Congress was standing at railway stations in Mumbai and scaring innocent labourers into fleeing to their native states.