Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that the state assembly elections to be held on November 20 are strange and only after the results are declared on November 23, it will be clear which group is supporting whom. . Fadnavis said that the grand alliance of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar-led NCP and BJP has an edge over Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).
Devendra Fadnavis said that these elections are strange. We will know only after the results who is with whom. There is internal contradiction even within the Mahayuti. He claimed that MVA is also facing a similar situation.
Devendra Fadnavis said that his party's slogan 'Bantenge to Katenge' has been coined in response to the election campaign of the opposition Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA). The BJP leader claimed that his colleagues Ashok Chavan and Pankaja Munde as well as Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar failed to understand its basic meaning. This slogan, repeatedly used by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the campaign for the November 20 assembly elections in Maharashtra, has united the opposition to condemn it. The opposition claims that the slogan has communal implications, while some leaders of the ruling coalition have also objected to it.
Fadnavis said that Bante to Katenge is a slogan coined in response to the divisive election campaign of the Congress-led Mahavikas Aghadi. The basic message of this slogan is that everyone has to live together. Fadnavis said that this slogan does not mean that we are against Muslims. We did not say that the benefits of Ladli Bahin Yojana will not be given to Muslim women.
He claimed that if we divide, we will be cut, this is the answer to the appeasement (politics) of Congress and MVA. They used vote jihad during the Lok Sabha elections and posters were put up in mosques, urging people to vote for a particular party. What kind of secularism is this? Fadnavis said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's waving of the red-covered copy of the Constitution was a concept stolen from the campaigns of anarchist forces in a Latin American country.
He said the concept was adversely affecting the opposition, especially after it was revealed at a Congress rally in Nagpur that the copy of the Constitution that Rahul Gandhi was waving had blank pages inside it. Fadnavis said that this concept was stolen from a Latin American country where elections were fought with anarchist forces and copies of the Constitution were waved. This is not the basic concept of Congress.
Fadnavis said that the concept of waving a copy of the Constitution was a hit till the Nagpur rally. Fadnavis said that what could be a bigger insult to the Constitution than this? Can't you print proper copies of the Constitution? You chant the name of the Constitution but distribute a book with blank pages. They (Congress) are wearing the burqa of the Constitution but are empty from inside. He has no respect for the Constitution.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister said that there is no fixed formula for selecting the next Chief Minister of the ruling Mahayuti alliance and a decision in this regard will be taken after the assembly election results are declared. He said that the decision on the post of Chief Minister will be taken by the leaders of the three parties. Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar are the national presidents of their respective parties and the BJP Parliamentary Board authorizes the party president to take decisions. Therefore, the national presidents of the three parties will take the decision.
Fadnavis defended the Mahayuti government's Ladki Bahin scheme as the opposition claimed it was affecting the state economically. Fadnavis said that Maharashtra's economy is worth Rs 40 lakh crore, and its debt is only Rs 6-6.5 lakh crore. He said that Uttar Pradesh also has the same debt, but its economy is worth Rs 25 lakh crore.
The Maharashtra government has estimated the annual financial burden for the Ladki Bahin scheme at Rs 46,000 crore. Fadnavis said that we are the largest state, so only the quantity of loan does not matter. The size of the economy is important. When you compare the ratio between Maharashtra's debt and its gross domestic product (GDP), we lead the category. Fadnavis laughed off questions about his possible promotion at the Center after the elections. Devendra Fadnavis, contesting from Nagpur South West seat, said that whatever BJP asks him to do, I will do it. Live here, die here, where else to go. Wherever BJP asks me to go, I will go there.
