Even as the cyclone Tauktae battered the coastal areas in Maharashtra and Gujarat, a political war has broken between the ruling BJP and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Uddhav Thackeray on Friday visited Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts in Konkan to know the ground situation in the aftermath of the cyclone, and directed the authorities to complete the crop loss assessment within two days.

Taking a dig, BJP criticised the duration of his visit to cyclone-hit Konkan region of Maharashtra, saying only 4-hour visit was not enough to know the real picture of the affected areas.

While former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he was surprised to know that Uddhav Thackeray was making political comments during his merely three-hour long tour of Konkan, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Pravin Darekar sought to know how the Uddhav Thackeray could understand in just three hours the extent of damage caused by the cyclone.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray hit back, saying that he was at least taking stock of the situation on the ground and not conducting an aerial survey in a helicopter.

“It’s okay if my tour lasted four hours. At least I am on the ground taking stock of the situation and not in a helicopter for a photo session. I am a photographer myself.I have not come here to respond to opposition’s criticism,” he said at Malvan in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg.

Thackeray’s remarks were apparently aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who recently conducted an aerial survey in Gujarat, where cyclone Tauktae caused considerable damage earlier this week.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his visit to cyclone-hit areas in Gujarat while giving Maharashtra a miss.

Raut said that PM Modi chose to visit Gujarat as there is weak leadership in the state that is not capable of handling the crisis.

He added that CM Thackeray, on the other hand, was quite capable of managing the crisis and that even the PM seems to think so.