Taking potshots at the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ahead of the Assembly elections, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said the NCP’s attitude has become like ‘sour grapes’.
“As long as [former Satara NCP MP] Udayanraje Bhosale was with them, they put him forward and sought votes in his name… They were even eager that he lead the NCP’s Shiv Swaraj Yatra. But now that he has joined us, the NCP is rallying against him,” he said.
The CM was speaking to reporters during the third phase of the Mahajanadesh Yatra. Mr. Fadnavis later addressed rallies in Wai and Satara city. Stating that the BJP and the Sena had only taken those opposition leaders to win maximum number of Assembly seats, Mr. Fadnavis predicted an “unprecedented victory” for the saffron alliance.
Mr. Bhosale, a direct descendant of Maratha warrior king Shivaji, had joined the BJP in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday, dealing a blow to the NCP in Satara district, considered as one of the party’s strongholds in western Maharashtra. The BJP has successfully poached both warring royals – Mr. Bhosale and sitting Satara MLA Shivendraraje Bhosale – from the NCP.
Meanwhile, Mr. Fadnavis denied accusations of an alleged lathi charge on NCP supporters during the BJP’s Yatra in Bhigwan (which forms part of the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency) on Saturday.
Mr. Fadnavis’s address was briefly interrupted by NCP demonstrators when the CM criticised the Pawar clan.
“There were barely seven NCP demonstrators who were trying to disturb my address …they dispersed as soon as the police arrived. Is there an Article 370 in place in Baramati, which mandates that no other party other than Mr. Pawar’s can hold rallies and public meetings there?” Mr. Fadnavis asked.
He further said the seat-sharing arrangement between the BJP and the Shiv Sena will be announced soon, and denied any knowledge of the Sena surveying all 288 Assembly seats with a view to contest independently in the event an alliance is not forged. “I have no such information. We will decide soon on the seat-sharing arrangement of our ‘Mahayuti’.”
The CM claimed in the last five years, the State had attracted the maximum industrial investment and maximum foreign direct investment (FDI), and said 25% of the total employment generated in the country was generated in Maharashtra.
“The MoU realisation rate in the State is 45% as opposed to the country’s figure of 35%. Ask the NCP which projects it had completed. Had it done so, it wouldn’t be in the political wilderness today,” Mr. Fadnavis said, stating that several of the projects launched by the BJP will come to fruition between 2020 and 2023.
