Mumbai: Taking strong objection to the criticism it faced over mismanagement of Mumbai floods, the Shiv Sena had a defence ready: “US cities like Houston and Texas are also facing a similar situation”.

"People who are afflicted with Sena hatred should know that Sena does not rule those places... Why don't these TV journalists ask questions to governments in other places like Gujarat, where over 213 have been killed due to floods? States like Bihar, Assam have been facing the fury of rains," Sena mouthpiece Saamana said on Wednesday.

“There should be no discrimination between rains in Mumbai and other parts of the country. Everybody should come ahead for disaster management and relief work,” Saamana added.

On Tuesday, while speaking to the media, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray refused to take the blame and asked the reporters present to "stop the floods". He also certified the BMC for being the heroes during the deluge.

He appealed to not politicise the issue and blamed various infrastructure construction works for the disaster.

After torrential rain swamped large parts of the Maximum City on Tuesday – paralysing road, rail and air services, life began returning to normal slowly with people stranded in offices, on railway platforms and stationary trains headed home. Mumbai's famed suburban railway system, which caters to over 60 lakh people a day, began crawling back to life but operations were not fully restored yet.