Pune: After the controversy over their joint appearance at the inauguration of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Saturday arrived for the Marathi literary meet Pune a day before to avoid sharing the dais with actor Amitabh Bachchan.
Chavan was welcomed by the organisers of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan at the venue of the literary meet and visited the book exhibition before spending time at the deliberations at a symposium of writers.
Chairman of the reception committee Dr Satish Desai said he came to know about the change in Chavan's schedule on Saturday morning from the city police.
He said the Chief Minister was originally expected to be present at the concluding session of the meet along with Bachchan on Sunday.
Chavan's coming together with Bachchan at the inauguration of the second phase of Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai had raised eyebrows, with several Congress workers in Maharashtra upset as the mega-star happens to be the brand ambassador of the BJP-ruled Gujarat.
The AICC had, however, sought to back the Chief Minister maintaining at the same time that the anger of party workers was justified in view of Bachchan's "identification" with Chief Minister Narendra Modi, as the superstar was a brand ambassador for Gujarat.
Bachchan had hit out at his detractors, saying the whole controversy was manufactured.
He dismissed as "hogwash" suggestions that the Congress is to blame for the controversy and said Sonia Gandhi's party has more pressing issues to attend to than belittle him.
"The media attempts to insinuate that the Congress Party is responsible for this (row) and that it is a deliberate attempt to deface me is a lot of hogwash. The Congress is a large outfit that has governed this land for the largest tenure in the political history of our nation and continues to do so," the actor said in his blog.
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