Rare unity of BJP, Cong, Sena stuns Konkan

In a rarest of rare show of unity, the BJP, Shiv Sena and Congress top leadership came together in the Konkan to commence the work of the Goa-Mumbai four lane highway.

A divided crowd shouting slogans of their respective parties with Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Congress leader Narayan Rane on the dais opened the programme of Nitin Gadkari's ministry.

"I am on this stage because I believe in politics of development. When it comes to development of the Konkan, we should work together," said Narayan Rane, whose positive pitch set the tone for the rest of the programme.

"We all are under one roof for a bigger agenda and we are still shouting slogans against each other. Let us come together for betterment of Konkan," said Uddhav Thackeray.

CM Fadnavis continued with the positivity and appealed to the Konkankars to be better than Goa. "Goa is now congested and overloaded. It is time for the Konkan to be the tourist haven of the West. We are planning major projects here including an airport at Chipi. We need cooperation of people to make these initiatives a grand success," he said.

Nitin Gadkari, weaving positive ambience into his speech, invoked Balasaheb Thackeray, Manohar Joshi and even gave due credit to Narayan Rane but blamed the lack of development of the Konkan on a divided leadership. "Leaders were not ready to come together. That is why Konkan could not develop the way it should have been. Today all are here and all are united for development," he said.