04 April,2024 05:52 PM IST | Nanded | mid-day online correspondent
Devendra Fadnavis and Ashok Chavan. File pic/mid-day
The induction of the veteran politician, the former chief minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan in the BJP has given a booster dose to the party, Devendra Fadnavis said in an election rally in Nanded ahead of Lok Sabha elections 2024.
Deputy chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was addressing the rally on Thursday after the sitting MP from BJP, Pratap Patil Chikhlikar filed his nomination papers for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Notably, in 2019 general elections Chikhlikar had defeated Chavan, who was with the Congress at the time, by more than 40,000 votes, reported PTI.
As per the report Fadnavis said, "Chikhlikar had got 43 percent votes when Chavan was contesting against him. Now, Chavan is with us and Chikhlikar's vote percentage will rise above 50. Chavan joining BJP has given a booster dose to the BJP in Nanded." Fadnavis added that, "When Chavan was in Congress, he supported the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway project while his then party colleagues as well as leaders of the NCP and Uddhav Thackeray had opposed it."
Addressing the rally, Chavan said that he and Ajit Gopchade (Rajya Sabha MPs) and Lok Sabha MPs from Nanded, Hingoli and Latur will work jointly to develop Marathwada. A chance has come after a long time that Nanded will have five MPs, Chavan claimed, reported PTI.
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The Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra will be help in five phases-starting from April 19 to June 1. The results will be declared on June 4.
Meanwhile, several other leaders from Maharashtra filed their nomination for Lok Sabha elections. Sitting MP and BJP leader Navneet Rana and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar on Thursday filed nominations for the Amravati and Akola Lok Sabha seats, respectively.
Addressing the rally before Rana filed her nomination, Fadnavis slammed Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and MVA government's chief minister Uddhav Thackeray for jailing Rana for chanting Hanuman chalisa, PTI report said.
Sana had won the Amravati seat in 2019 as an Independent backed by several opposition parties. She later declared her support to BJP.
(With PTI inputs)
