The Chief Minister first performed the bhoomi pujan of the Rs 16.53-crore, 514-mt-long flyover across the railway lines between Mira Road and Bhayander stations at 9.30 am, Bhayander (W), before hopping across to Silver Park complex at Mira Road (E). Here, he laid the foundation stone of the Rs 110.64-crore `additional 50 mld water supply project'.

However, without even waiting for the felicitation function organised by the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Council (MBMC), Joshi scurried off to the nearby Shiv Sena shakha, leaving Deputy Chairperson of the Legislative Council, Vasantrao Davkhare, to do the honours. Even Thane Guardian Minister Diwakar Raote had stayed away. But it was Tourism Minister Jagannath Patil who had the embarrassing task ofexplaining why the Chief Minister was in a tearing hurry. ``He had to attend to urgent official business,'' the tongue-tied minister mumbled. Davkhare, however, was less tactful. In his address, he said if the Chief Minister could not say even a few words and confer his blessings on the two new projects, ``it was a bad omen''.

Next, it was the turn of the MBMC's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporators to cast a hex on the function. On Thursday, all nine corporators, including Rohidas Patil, general secretary of the party's Thane district unit, had circulated a press note saying they would boycott the function citing their objection to the exclusion of Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Ram Kapse (BJP) of Thane district from the occasion.

Asked by mediapersons later, whether the presence of Ganesh Naik, former Shiv Sena minister and rebel party leader, had made the Chief Minister squirm and therefore scam from the venue, the Tourism Minister trotted out the official party line: It was the ``urgent call ofduty'' that took Joshi away in such a hurry. Any takers for that theory?