While the NCP criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modis light up lamps message to people, an MLA of the party, who is also a relative of Sharad Pawar, on Friday struck a different note and appeared to welcome the appeal.
NCP MLA Rohit Pawar said Modi's message was aimed at brining the country together in the fight against coronavirus.
Rohit Pawar, grandnephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, also urged citizens to use the national flag as the display picture (DP) of their respective social media accounts.
Prime minister @narendramodi ji is aiming to bring the country together through lights & if so, we should welcome this thought.
"Likewise, as a citizen of this country I urge you to place the flag of our country as a DP of your social media accounts for a message of solidarity, the MLA from the Karjat -Jamkhed Assembly segment tweeted.
In his 9 AM video message to the nation, Modi urged people to switch off lights of their homes at 9 pm for nine minutes on April 5 and light up lamps, candles and mobile flashlights to display the nation's collective spirit to defeat coronavirus.
The NCP criticised Modi over the message, saying it left citizens "quite disappointed" in the fight against coronavirus even as one of its Maharashtra ministers, Jitendra Awhad, termed it as pure stupidity to tell people to do so.
The party maintained it was expected that the prime minister would talk about measures being taken to combat COVID-19, but people were instead told to light up lamps.
