Mumbai, Apr 25 (PTI) A game of one-upmanship seems to have begun between ruling allies BJP and the Shiv Sena over tourists being brought back to Maharashtra from Kashmir following the horrific Pahalgam attack earlier this week.

While the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) on Friday posted on social media platform X that 500 tourists had been brought back to the state so far in special flights arranged by the state government on the instructions of CM Devendra Fadnavis, the Sena was giving to credit to Deputy CM Eknath Shinde.

The Shiv Sena said it brought back 520 passengers from Srinagar on four different flights, adding that Shinde personally oversaw the relief efforts.

“The air expenses for 520 tourists were borne by the Shiv Sena,” a functionary from Shinde’s office said.

Meanwhile, the CMO statement said another batch of 237 tourists will land in Maharashtra on Friday.

It also said Fadnavis reviewed the situation with cabinet minister Girish Mahajan on Thursday. If more flights were needed to bring back the remaining tourists, the state government will bear the expenses, Fadnavis was quoted as saying.

Immediately after the attack, the Maharashtra government launched efforts to bring back tourists from J-K, with Fadnavis on Wednesday deputing Mahajan for coordination.

On Wednesday, the government announced that cabinet ministers Ashish Shelar and Mangal Prabhat Lodha were at Mumbai airport for coordination when bodies of those killed in the attack were flown in. Madhuri Misal was entrusted with the responsibility in Pune.

The Shiv Sena deployed its ministers Gulabrao Patil and Yogesh Kadam at the airport. Shinde himself left for Srinagar on Wednesday to coordinate the efforts to bring back the tourists to the state and camped there for two days.

The apparent game of one-upmanship has attracted the ire of the opposition.

Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar on Thursday said those in the ruling alliance were on a self-promotion spree and were not even sparing incidents like the horrific terror attack in Pahalgam.

Instead of giving courage to those from Maharashtra who lost their kin or are injured in the attack, Deputy Chief Minister Shinde visited Kashmir “without any need”, the Congress Legislature Party leader further claimed.

The Sena, meanwhile, was quick to target rival Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) over the issue. Thackeray and his family are out of the country.

“While Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short his overseas visit and Union Home Minister Amit Shah rushed to Pahalgam, Eknath Shinde immediately flew to Srinagar to lead relief operations and ensure the safety of Marathi tourists,” Lok Sabha MP Naresh Mhaske said.

“But what did the Thackeray family do? They’re enjoying the cool breeze of Europe. Have they even sent a single bottle of water for our people stranded in Kashmir?” Mhaske said.

Be it the Irshal Fort tragedy, the floods in Kolhapur and Kerala, or now the situation in Srinagar, Shinde has always stood by the people, Mhaske said.

“He’s carrying forward the true legacy of Balasaheb Thackeray,” Mhaske said praising the Deputy CM and his party chief.

Meanwhile, CM Fadnavis on Friday termed as inappropriate remarks by Mhaske that tourists who had never travelled in an aircraft before were being brought back to Maharashtra by flight.

“Forty-five from Wardha and Nagpur had gone (to Jammu Kashmir) through the railway. They were staying in a CRPF camp. Forty-five people are such who had never travelled in a flight before. Arrangements were made by Eknath Shinde to bring them back home,” Mhaske had said on Thursday.

At least 26 people were killed and several injured when terrorists opened fire at a meadow near Pahalgam town in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Tuesday afternoon. PTI PR BNM