Meet targets, help new allies: Devendra Fadnavis to BJP cadre

Deputy CM performs delicate balancing act, says NCP alliance is purely political, but could grow into a bond in the future

Seeking to dispel doubts in the BJP camp and smoothen ruffled feathers of new and old allies, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that the bond his party shared with the Shiv Sena (Shinde) was more an emotional kind, whereas the pact it had with the NCP was purely political, but it could become an emotional one in the next 10-15 years.

Speaking at the Mahavijay-2024 Workshop in Bhiwandi on Thursday, Fadnavis appealed to BJP workers to help the new friends win their seats next year while achieving the party’s individual target of 152 seats in the Assembly. But before that the party will have to ensure victory in as many Lok Sabha seats to give PM Narendra Modi a big push to return to power in New Delhi for the third consecutive term, he said.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and CM Eknath Shinde at a press conference on May 11. File Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

The statements came when the BJP grass-roots workforce is said to be perplexed and a large section of state leaders worried, in the wake of the new political arrangement in the state. The single largest party has shared the spoils with one more ally when the government had a majority by way of its pact with the Shinde Sena. Fadnavis justified the arrangement with a prolonged explanation that was laced with lessons from mythology.  The arrangement that came into existence on July 2 has not been able to overcome its first roadblock in view of the delay in portfolio distribution.

Fadnavis narrated the events, beginning from 2019 and even before it, that led to the BJP’s break-up with the united Shiv Sena and friendship with a sizeable section of the Nationalist Congress Party that has led to a pact with the Ajit Pawar faction, now the third ruling partner. The Dy CM told the party workers that it was Uddhav Thackeray who began it first in 2019. He justified the strategic approach (kutniti) the BJP adopted to have Ajit on its side because, “One has to use kutniti to deal with the dishonest (read Thackeray)”.

“Are Shinde and Ajit Pawar novices in politics who can come to us just like that? They joined us after giving it complete thought. Remember injustice creates a Shinde. Our alliance with Shiv Sena is emotional, and the pact with NCP is political, which can turn emotional after 10-15 years,” added Fadnavis. “Some people are coming together to oppose Modiji. Our doors are open to all who want to join us. But we will never go with the parties known for appeasement—the Congress, AIMIM and Muslim League,” Fadnavis said, adding that the BJP was never dishonest to its allies.

“Let’s work to win as many seats—152 plus for (BJP) as (state BJP chief) Chandrashekhar Bawankule says—and also help our friends to win maximum (from their quota) as well. We have that strength and organisation,” he appealed to the audience, revealing that conspiracies were planned at the international level to stop PM Modi in his tracks. “Nobody can stop India under Modiji’s leadership. There are people out there internationally who attempt to weaken the Indian economy, create communal unrest and instigate the vulnerable classes against the government. 

A same set of organised activists, who are funded by a single source that we have identified, has been trying to stall projects in India to weaken it,” he said, telling the workers that Modi had no match among the Opposition ranks.  Speaking earlier, Bawankule expressed confidence that the BJP and its allies would together win more than 45 Lok Sabha and more than 200 Legislative Assembly seats, including the BJP’s 152, next year.

152
No of Assembly seats BJP aims to win

July 2
Day new arrangement came about in state

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