“Reflects how incapable the Railways Minister is…” Aaditya Thackeray hits out at Ashwini Vaishnaw over Mumbai Bandra Stampede

Hours after the scary stampede at the Bandra Railway Terminus, Shiv Sena UBT slammed the Union Government, calling it a “shame” for the country. Hitting out at union railway ministry Ashwini Vaishnaw, former Maharastra minister Aaditya Thackeray lamented that “our country has been forced under such incapable ministers”. At least nine people were injured in a stampede at Bandra Terminus Railway station in Mumbai, early on Sunday morning. The incident happened at around 3am as passengers gathered on platform number 1 of the railway station for for Train No. 22921, Bandra-Gorakhpur Express.


“Wish the reel minister was a rail minister for once. The incident at Bandra only reflects how incapable the current Railways Minister is. The bjp has made Ashwini Vaishnav ji, a prabhari for bjp Maharashtra for elections, but every week there are some incidents and accidents that occur with the railways” Aaditya Thackeray, son of former Chief Minister of Maharastra Uddhav Thackeray posted on ‘X’.

This isn’t the first time opposition has used the “Reel Minister” expression referring to Ashwini Vaishnaw. Owing to several incidents of train disasters including the Balasore train accident of June 2023 that had claimed over 200 lives, the Indian Railways had been at the receiving end from the opposition and also under the public scrutiny. Be it the Balasore train accident in Odisha or the Kunchunjunga Train disaster of June 2024 in West Bengal- Vaishnaw’s videos from the spot had courted controversies. During Balasore train accident, Vaishnaw was seen crawling out of a mangled train compartment and similarly during the Kanchunjunga disaster, his video of trying to reach to the spot as a pillion on a bike while his security people were running by his sides, yet again had gone viral on social media with opposition questioning if ‘reels’ had pushed behind railway safety.

Incidentally this stampede at Bandra railway terminus comes days before Mumbai and Maharashtra goes to polling for the assembly elections on November 20. Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has appointed Vaishnaw as the party’s campaign in-charge in the state.

The stampede on Sunday early morning at Bandra terminus, officials have said, was due to heavy rush of passengers wanting to return to their native places during the Diwali break. Thousands of people had assembled on Platform number 1 to catch the Bandra-Gorakpur Antyodaya Express. 9 people had sustained injuries, at least two of them were reportedly critical and admitted to hospital. The incident was a grim reminder of the deadly stampede on the foot overbridge connecting Elphinstone Road Station and Parel Suburban Station in Mumbai on 29th September, leading to 23 deaths and several injuries.​