The government will fall because of internal issues: Devendra Fadnavis

Devendra Fadnavis

Claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in no hurry to form the government, opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis has predicted that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will wind up because of internal issues, rather than external forces. He asked Congress and senior leader Rahul Gandhi to share the blame, instead of holding Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Shiv Sena entirely responsible for making a mess of the COVID-19 pandemic in Maharashtra.

Fadnavis, who had called a press conference on Tuesday, said the state needed assertive political leadership to take bold decisions that should help people during the pandemic and lockdown, and even after it, in a period which will be fraught by several economic challenges. Sympathising with Thackeray's situation, he blamed the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for cornering him.

He said the demand for President's Rule was first made by Subramaniam Swami and then by Narayan Rane. "But the BJP is not part of the current political talk. But we will continue to create pressure for better handling of the novel Coronavirus pandemic," he said.

Fadnavis asked his detractors to understand the Constitution to know the role of a governor. "The governor is not a puppet but head of the state whom not only us, but the Congress, NCP and Sena had approached time and again in the past," he said.

Fadnavis said allegations that the Centre did not help the state much, were unfounded. He said it has given the state in cash and kind R 19,000 cr for measures related to COVID-19. "This includes food grains, direct cash transfer to farmers, widows, destitutes, women, disaster management fund and labour camps. For healthcare R2,059 cr was given and R9000 cr was given towards farm produce," he said, saying figures add up to R 28,104 cr. He said the state was making a false statement that it didn't have money. He said R1.65 lakh cr could be raised through the Centre's schemes, and R78,000 cr more could be availed from its economic package.

"Does only Devendra Fadnavis understand the economy and can only he help run this government and free the state of the pandemic?" asked Shiv Sena minister Anil Parab. He said the government had many experts, knew how to govern and would give a fitting rejoinder to Fadnavis.

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