Irritated by a scribe's question, Uddhav Thackeray asks can you stop the rain

Irritated by a scribe's question as to what he was doing when it rained heavily in Mumbai on Tuesday, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray said, "I was sleeping when it rained yesterday". "Can you stop the rain?" he shot back at another scribe.

The scene took place at a press conference held at the Mayor's bungalow in Dadar on Wednesday by Thackeray, minister for Industries Subhash Desai, Mumbai's mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner Ajoy Mehta.

Thackeray said he was told by Mehta that a cloud measuring 9 km high was looming over Mumbai, but it had passed. "Had that burst," he said, "this press conference would have been impossible."

Stating that there is a limit to which one can confront and fight nature, Thackeray said that the mayor as well as Shiv Sena MLAs were on the streets, helping stranded people. He added that BMC staffers and BEST employees also reached out to people during the crisis.

"You should ask where these people were yesterday... those who are criticizing us," he said, retaliating to criticism by BJP as well as Congress. "It is the Shiv Sena which is always there and that is why people have re-elected us to BMC." He informed that 6 to 8 million litres of water was pumped out from pumping stations in the city in one single day.

Stating that he was accountable to Mumbaikars and not to his political opponents, Thackeray said that the party would organize health camps through out Mumbai, in which BMC doctors would participate.