Riven with disaffection in recent times, the Maharashtra unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday projected a united front during a day-long fast over Marathwada’s water problems staged by former minister Pankaja Munde in Aurangabad city.
Stating that the intent behind her fast was to draw the attention of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to Marathwada’s water woes, Ms. Munde said her fast “was not one of protest or criticism against the government, but the Opposition’s expectation from it”.
“I am not holding this fast to hanker after any position within the party nor is it meant to criticise the working of the MVA, which has barely completed 100 days. This fast is only to convey the expectations that the farmers and people of Marathwada have from the government with respect to the vital problem of water,” she said, while fasting in front of the Aurangabad District Collectorate.
Ms. Munde said the objective behind the fast was to draw the government’s attention to the farmer suicides and migration from the region. “While our government has done a lot of work for Marathwada, I would urge Mr. Thackeray to expedite the water projects started by us,” she said.
Ms. Munde along with senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse had openly expressed her disgruntlement against the party’s State leadership in general and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in particular. The disaffection of the OBC faction within the party towards the leadership had threatened to split the BJP wide open.
However, Mr. Fadnavis, along with Union Minister Raosaheb Danve, former speaker Haribhau Bagade, and Pravin Darekar, the BJP’s LoP in the Council, joined Ms. Munde during her fast to emphasise that there was no rift within the party.
Lauding Ms. Munde’s leadership, Mr. Fadnavis warned the MVA that the BJP would take to the streets if the government stopped or failed to implement the water projects begun by it.
“Even if Ms. Munde’s fast today is a symbolic one, it will not remain so if the government does not implement the projects that we had taken up to bring water to Marathwada. This region was always sidelined when the erstwhile Congress-NCP government was in power. Their leaders had always diverted water that was due to Marathwada to western Maharashtra. It was we who approached Prime Minister Modi, who then gave his assent for the ₹4,000 crore Krishna-Marathwada project,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
Claiming that the ‘Jal Yukt Shivar’ scheme started by his government was a revolutionary water project, Mr. Fadnavis warned the MVA government of intensifying agitation if it dared to scrap any project that was in the interests of the people of Marathwada.
“All arrangements are in place thanks to our government. The present government only has to give assent and implement projects already started by us. The work that our government has done must be taken forward. You [MVA] may even take credit or change the name of the projects started by us, but do not harm the interests of the people by scrapping them…Today, we [the BJP] have only come to awaken you. If you take these projects ahead, we will support you, but if you try to delay projects, we will hit the streets tomorrow,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
Ms. Munde’s fast met with jeers from All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen leader and Aurangabad MP Imitiaz Jaleel, who dubbed it “a farce”. “What were Ms. Munde and the Fadnavis government doing when the BJP was in power. How can they think the people are such fools by holding fasts? The BJP was in power at the Centre and the State, but they didn’t do anything for Marathwada then,” Mr. Jaleel said.
Likewise, senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal took potshots at Ms. Munde and the BJP, saying, “If the BJP had indeed worked during the five years it had been given the chance, their leaders would not be sitting on fasts or talking of launching agitations now.”
