Maharashtra: Devendra Fadnavis, Bawankule meet suspended Congress leader Ashish Deshmukh

Devendra Fadnavis. File Pic

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis along with state Bharatiya Janata Party president Chandrashekhar Bawankule visited Ashish Deshmukh, a former Congress MLA who has been issued a show-cause notice and placed under suspension for alleged anti-party activities, reported the PTI on Saturday.

In a press release, Deshmukh said the leaders discussed ways to bring about overall development of Vidarbha, including setting up an integrated fertiliser complex in Nagpur, the region's largest city, through Gujarat-based IFFCO Limited, as per the PTI.

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Deshmukh said he has sent a letter to Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah through Fadnavis citing the suitability of Nagpur for such a project.

In the letter, Deshmukh said land, water, electricity, manpower etc were readily available, adding that the Maharashtra government was investor-friendly.

Incidentally, Deshmukh was defeated from Nagpur South West Assembly seat by a margin of 50,000 votes by Fadnavis in the 2019 Assembly polls.

In January this year, Deshmukh had reportedly written to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge seeking the removal of Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole, after which he was suspended from the party in April.

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Earlier, the Maharashtra Congress had suspended Deshmukh from its primary membership for his public statements against the party leadership in the state.

Deshmukh is a former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Katol in Nagpur who later joined the Congress. He was the Congress nominee against BJP leader and now Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis from the Nagpur South West seat in the 2019 Assembly polls.

He is the son of former state Congress chief Ranjit Deshmukh.

He was recently issued a show-cause notice by the state Congress's disciplinary action committee headed by former CM Prithviraj Chavan for his comments that MPCC president Nana Patole receives money from Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Deshmukh had also said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the Other Backward Class (OBC) community over his "Modi surname" remarks

In his reply to the notice, Deshmukh had reportedly said,"It is unfortunate that I have been issued a show- cause notice without any substantial reason."

Defending his statement on Rahul Gandhi, Deshmukh had said that it needs to be explained and understood with the context to derive the right conclusion.

(with PTI inputs)