Mumbai: Senior BJP leader and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said that the ‘Mahayuti’ alliance does not need to announce its chief ministerial candidate as Eknath Shinde is the CM. The BJP leader made the statement in presence of Mr. Shinde and the other DCM Ajit Pawar. However, without specifying if Mr. Shinde will be the CM if Mahayuti wins, he challenged Sharad Pawar to declare Maha Vikas Aghadi’s CM candidate.
Mr. Fadnavis said that the MVA leaders are the biggest brand ambassadors for Gujarat as they continue to claim that industries from Maharashtra are moving to the neighbouring state. He claimed that Maharashtra is by far the leader in the country in attracting investments and it will remain at the top.
Earlier this week, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had said that the MVA will announce its chief ministerial candidate only after the Mahayuti declares their candidate. Responding to Mr. Thackeray, the BJP leader said, “We don’t need to announce the chief ministerial candidate. Our chief minister is sitting here (next to him).”
Mr. Fadnavis further dared NCP founder Pawar to declare who will be the MVA’s chief minister. “The MVA isn't announcing their CM face because they themselves don't believe their candidate will be able to take the position post-elections,” he said.
Mr. Shinde said that the work done by his government in the last two and half years will be Mahayuti’s chief ministerial face. He along with Mr. Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar released their government’s “report card” a day after the model code of conduct came into force in the state. The ‘report card’ also gave comparison between the work done by the MVA and Mahayuti governments. Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government was in power from November 2019 to June 2022. Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti formed the government in June 2022.
Taking a dig at the MVA, Mr. Shinde said they should announce their face for the post of leader of the opposition. “We are presenting our report card, which is not an easy thing to do. To prepare a report card, one has to do some work first. What can they (MVA) give in their report card? They cannot prepare a report card because they only stalled a number of projects and welfare schemes,” the CM said.
Mr. Shinde said that the cost of the Metro project in Mumbai rose by Rs 17,000 crore as the Metro carshed project at the Aarey colony was stopped by the MVA dispensation. The Aarey car shed was scrapped due to “bal hatt” (child’s insistence) and arrogance, the Maharashtra CM said without naming Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya Thackeray.
“All development works, like the high speed Mumbai-Ahmedabad railway (bullet train) project, were stopped by the previous MVA government,” the CM added.
However, the Mahayuti has still not finalised its seat sharing formula. When asked about the number of seats on which the alliance partners have reached the agreement, Mr. Fadnavis said, “We cannot disclose numbers before we finalise all seats. Once our talks are complete, we will declare the seats being contested by each constituent.”
Ajit Pawar rejected Opposition’s allegation that all schemes announced by the Shinde government in the last few months, including ‘CM Majhi Ladki Bahin’ (CM My Beloved Sister) scheme, are only election gimmicks. Under the scheme, women in the age group of 18 to 65 and having annual family income less than Rs 2.50 lakh are provided monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,500.
“I want to clarify that the scheme will continue even after the election. We have made budgetary provision for the entire year and the scheme will not stop. The opposition is making baseless statements and their allegations keep changing. After we announced the scheme, they said it will not be implemented. When the implementation started, they claimed that the money will not be given. Now we have deposited even November month’s installment. The opposition tried to set fake narrative around the feasibility of the scheme. But we have made the budgetary allocation of Rs 45,000 crore for implementation of Ladki Bahin scheme for the entire year,” Ajit Pawar said.
