Mumbai: The rat story continued on Saturday with Saamana, the Shiv Sen’s mouthpiece, slamming the Maharashtra government over the controversy whereas finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar tried to defend the government. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Eknath Khadse had made allegations about corruption in rat killing in Mantralaya and the cabinet secretariat in Mumbai. 

Taunting Mr Khadse, the Saamana editorial said, “ This is a rat scam. People like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya too are wondering about this new technique of scam. There could be a long march of rats to Mantralaya. But we don't know whether chief minister Devendra Fadnavis would face it or not. This is the issue from his own general administration ministry.” 

After the entire ‘rat saga,’ state finance minister, Mr Mungantiwar had no choice but to defend the government. In Shirdi he said, “The numbers of rats is being confused with the number of tablets used to kill them. “