2-hour rain, 20-km jam: Gurugram gridlocked; Opposition blames BJP
Gurugram: Gurugram was left paralysed on Monday evening after just two to three hours of heavy rainfall triggered massive waterlogging and a traffic jam stretching nearly 20 kilometres. Commuters reported being stuck on highways and arterial roads for five to six hours.
Opposition leaders seized on the chaos to target the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government in Haryana, accusing it of poor planning and neglect despite being in power for over a decade.
Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala posted a video of the gridlock, remarking, “2 hours of rain = 20 KMs of Gurgaon Jam! As CM Nayab Saini only flies in the state helicopter and doesn’t travel on the road, this is a helicopter shot of the highway. So much for crores spent on drainage and traffic management.”
Congress MP Kumari Selja said the scenes of stranded commuters reflected the “incapability and failed planning” of the BJP government. Former MP Deepender Singh Hooda claimed the Congress had built Gurugram, but the BJP had “destroyed it” over the last 11 years.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also weighed in, calling Gurugram “a double engine sarkar with double the failure track record.”
Responding to the criticism, the Haryana BJP said the downpour had broken a 36-year rainfall record and described the situation as a “natural calamity.” It maintained that the government had made “all arrangements” to tackle waterlogging and assured that assistance was being provided to affected areas.
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'Rear-guard action': BJP over Mamata accepting sports minister's resignation after Messi event
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Tuesday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's accepting Aroop Biswas' resignation as the state sports minister is nothing but a "rear-guard action" to douse public anger over the mismanagement of football icon Lionel Messi's event last week.
BJP co-in-charge for West Bengal Amit Malviya alleged that this is also an "open confession" that the Messi event fiasco was not accidental but a government-manufactured disaster, borne out of the poor governance of Banerjee, her ministers and the state bureaucracy.
Banerjee on Tuesday accepted Biswas' resignation as the sports minister in the wake of the controversy over the mismanagement of football icon Messi's event last week, a senior leader of the ruling TMC said.
Biswas, who had written to the chief minister seeking to be relieved of his responsibilities as sports minister, will continue as a cabinet minister, retaining charge of the power department.
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Reacting to the development, Malviya said in a post on X, "TMC Sports Minister Aroop Biswas resigns after the Messi fiasco and Mamata Banerjee accepts it in record time."
"Do not mistake this for accountability; this is nothing but a rear-guard action to douse public anger. anger! This is not 'Raj Dharma'," he added.
The BJP leader alleged that the incident was the outcome of "loot" of common people which is "so synonymous" with the TMC.
The incident was also the outcome of the "shameless VIP culture that TMC thrives on and deep-rooted cronyism promoted by Banerjee," he charged.
Malviya further alleged that Biswas' resignation exposes a "collective failure of Mamata Banerjee, her partisan bureaucracy, and her crony cabinet".
"This is a symbolic sacrifice, a political hoax, soon to be buried under layers of bureaucracy, with no justice, no accountability, and no remorse," the BJP leader said, adding, "No resignation will bring back the time lost, the money wasted, or the stolen chance for football lovers to witness Messi in Kolkata."
