Mumbai, July 21 (IANS) The Shiv Sena Wednesday alleged that the Congress government in Maharashtra was soft on the Chandrababu Naidu issue to help divert attention from the statewide political rallies by Andhra Pradesh Congress leader and MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

In an editorial in Saamna, the party mouthpiece, the Sena said that Jagan, as the MP is popularly known, has disregarded his party's leadership to launch statewide political yatras (marches) which are getting tremendous response from the masses.

The Sena said in order to divert attention of the Andhra Pradesh people from Jagan's politics, the Congress encouraged the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) agitation against the Babhali Barrage.

"The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party and (Maharashtra) Chief Minister Ashok Chavan willingly complied in the matter," the editorial said.

Following the five-day anti-Babhali Barrage agitation by TDP, the state government shunted Naidu and 65 others back to Hyderabad Tuesday night in a specially-chartered aircraft.

According to the Sena, if the Congress was so serious about taking action against Naidu and his men, they should have been strict with them from day one - July 16 - when they sneaked through the Nanded border.

"Before shifting them to Aurangabad, the state government should have made Naidu wear prison clothes, give a bow for food and a mug for water. They would have broken the locks of the jail and decamped from there the very first night," it said.

Instead, the state government succumbed to Naidu's tantrums and accepted all his demands, including travelling in air-conditioned vehicles, good lodging and boarding, the editorial noted.

To top it, the Maharashtra government not only dropped all charges against Naidu and his men, but also chartered a special aircraft to send them back to Hyderabad, it added.

The Saamna said Naidu's TDP campaigned for the forthcoming (July 27) by-elections in Telangana by staying in comfort as a guest of the Maharashtra government and carrying on a drama over Babhali Barrage.

Lambasting the state government for its failure on the TDP agitation, the Sena said it goes to any extent against its own people to crush legitimate agitations, but did nothing to stop the drama by Naidu and his men.

In all this, the Sena said it is the Maharashtra government which has suffered. "We lost our honour (izzat) in Karnataka, now we have lost it in Andhra Pradesh and also before the whole country", it lamented.