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Bihar Assembly Election 2020: ‘Will you campaign for those who defamed Maharashtra,” Anil Deshmukh asks Devendra Fadnavis
The Maharashtra home minister was talking about former Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey, who recently joined Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s JD(U).
Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday took a jibe at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis, asking him if he will campaign for former Bihar police chief Gupteshwar Pandey, ‘who defamed Maharashtra.’
Fadnavis, the former chief minister of Maharashtra, is the BJP’s election in-charge for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. Pandey recently took voluntary retirement from service and joined Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United).
“I want to ask Devendra Fadnavis if he will campaign for former Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey, a person who defamed Maharashtra,” Deshmukh said during a media interaction.
Deshmukh’s jibe at Fadnavis comes in the wake of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) panel report in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. The panel has ruled out murder in the death of the 34-year-old actor, who was found dead in his flat in Mumbai on June 14.
Pandey had been one of the most vocal voices calling for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of Rajput, after a war of words between the Mumbai Police and Bihar Police over the parallel probe by the force’s Patna team into the case filed by the actor’s family in Patna.
He has made a series of controversial comments on the issue, including on actor Rhea Chakraborty, who is currently in judicial custody for allegedly supplying drugs to Rajput. After his voluntary retirement, Pandey was accused of using the case as ‘political capital.’
A number of leaders from Maharashtra have claimed ‘vindication’ in the wake of AIIMS panel report. While Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said there has been a conspiracy to malign the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai Police, state minister Jayant Patil called the report a ‘slap’ for those who had defamed the Maharashtra government.
The Bihar assembly polls will take place in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7. Counting of votes will take place on November 10.
