"My personal relation with Uddhav Thackeray is still intact and just as it was before all this," the former Chief Minister said.
Weeks after the entire crisis over government formation in Maharashtra, former Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis put his two cents on Saturday regarding the political drama, opining on the current Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government and the developments with NCP's Ajit Pawar, that had taken the media by storm.
"Ajit Pawar told me that the NCP cannot run a three-party government with Shiv Sena and the Congress and that is why they had approached us, the BJP, for forming a coalition government with us," Fadnavis said, adding that according to Ajit Pawar, this decision also had the express approval of NCP chief Sharad Pawar. In addition to this, Fadnavis claimed, Ajit Pawar had even made him talk to several NCP MLAs to assure him of the idea of forming an NCP-BJP government. "Now, whether it was the right decision or not will be decided later," said the former Maharashtra Chief Minister.
He also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party never hatches up a 'deal' with anyone. If such was the case, Fadnavis said, then the BJP could just have agreed to Shiv Sena's claim of sharing the Chief Minister post for 2.5 years. Instead, the BJP agreed to not compromise and stepped back since they were confident about the public mandate which had crowned them as the party with the single-largest majority in the state. For context, even though the Shiv Sena contested the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Elections in a pre-poll alliance with the BJP, following the elections Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had demanded a rotating Chief Ministerial post, which ultimately became the reason for the fallout between the parties.
In reference to this, Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said, "My personal relation with Uddhav Thackeray is still intact and just as it was before all this. There is not a wall between us."
When asked regarding the current NCP-Sena-Congress government, the former Chief Minister said that the Congress and the Shiv Sena coming together to form a government is in itself a contradiction in their ideologies. "Even the government does not know how many days this government will run," he opined. As a part of the Opposition, Fadnvais said that the BJP will give some time to the new government to get on track, but after some time they will not hold back any longer and hold the government accountable for its shortcomings.
And what would these shortcomings be like? On Friday, Devendra Fadnavis provided a hint regarding his gripe with some of the steps that the current Maharashtra government is taking. "Loans with minimal interest were made available in the bullet train project and the stopping of developmental activities will only hurt employment," Fadnavis said, referring to the Maharashtra government's decision to stay the construction of metro car shed in Mumbai's Aarey Colony. He had earlier, too, slammed Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray saying that the state government was not serious enough about infrastructure projects.
Finally, Fadnavis debunked all media rumours about infighting within the BJP. "The news of internal dispute within the BJP is entirely a media creation," he said, adding, "In our party, people from all castes, including Other Backward Classes (OBC) have gotten an equal representation. In fact, our Prime Minister is from an OBC caste himself." All in all, Fadnavis was confident about the new role that the Bharatiya Janata Party, as a member of the opposition, was going to assume in the Maharashtra Assembly for the term.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Maharashtra:")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}