04 April,2024 05:39 PM IST | Amravati | mid-day online correspondent
Navneet Rana and Prakash Ambedkar. File Pic
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and sitting MP Navneet Rana and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar on Thursday filed nominations for the Amravati and Akola seats in Maharashtra, respectively, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, reported the PTI.
Speaking to reporters, Prakash Ambedkar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacks other parties over dynastic politics but the BJP's Akola candidate Anup Dhotre is son of sitting MP Sanjay Dhotre, as per the PTI.
Addressing a rally Navneet Rana, who had won the Amravati seat in 2019 as an Independent backed by several opposition parties, filed her nomination papers, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the Supreme Court had set aside the 2021 Bombay High Court order and restored her Scheduled Caste certificate, according to the PTI.
Devendra Fadnavis also attacked Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray for jailing Navneet Rana during tenure of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) for chanting Hanuman Chalisa.
Meanwhile, Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday that the induction of former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan has given a "booster dose" to the BJP in Nanded, reported the PTI.
Devendra Fadnavis was addressing a BJP rally in Nanded, some 270 kilometres from here, after party colleague and sitting MP Pratap Patil Chikhlikar filed his nomination papers. Chikhlikar had defeated Chavan, who was with the Congress at the time, by more than 40,000 votes in the 2019 polls.
"Chikhlikar had got 43 percent votes when Chavan was contesting against him. Now, Ashok Chavan is with us and Chikhlikar's vote percentage will go above 50. Ashok Chavan joining BJP has given a booster dose to the BJP in Nanded," Devendra Fadnavis said.
Devendra Fadnavis said that Ashok Chavan, when he was in the Congress, supported the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway plan while his party colleagues at the time as well as leaders of the NCP and Uddhav Thackeray had opposed it.
"When the idea to connect Nanded with the Samruddhi Expressway came up, we decided to do it. We have an agenda to develop Marathwada and Vidarbha. Now, the development of Nanded and all of Marathwada will gather pace," the deputy CM said, the news agency reported on Thursday.
(with PTI inputs)
