Praful Patel praises Fadnavis to the skies

NAGPUR At a time when one partner of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi troika, the Congress, is imploding with infighting, the sight of a prominent leader from another partner, the NCP, cosying up to the BJP leadership has stirred much speculation about political reconfiguration

NAGPUR At a time when one partner of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi troika, the Congress, is imploding with infighting, the sight of a prominent leader from another partner, the NCP, cosying up to the BJP leadership has stirred much speculation about political reconfiguration.

Praful Patel praises Fadnavis to the skies

On Thursday, senior NCP leader and former union minister Praful Patel showered praise on deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis when the latter visited his pocket borough of Gondia, about 150 kilometres from Nagpur. “Fadnavis is known as an accomplished, visionary and dynamic leader,” said Patel adding that Fadnavis too, in the past, had appreciated work done by Patel when was a union minister in the UPA government. The two leaders met at a function organized to mark the 117th birth anniversary of Praful Patel’s father Manoharbhai Patel. Gondia and Bhandara districts are home turfs of Patel and Congress state president Nana Patole. The latter has been in the news after a rebellion in the Congress ranks led by Balasaheb Thorat, his nephew Satyajeet Tambe and most recently Vijay Wadettiwar.

On Wednesday, the adjudicating authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) had confirmed the attachment of several apartments at Ceejay House at Worli which are owned by Praful Patel and his family. But just 24 hours later, Patel seemed to have put that behind him as he focused on politics and his family’s contribution to the development of the area. “Look at our district from a different perspective. You (Devendra Fadnavis) and I are both sons of Vidarbha. We want to develop Vidarbha together. No one should bring politics into this. I was the country’s civil aviation minister and at that time Fadnavis used to be the first person to send me an SMS for any good work done by me. I am telling this story because when a leader praises another one from a different political party, then it clearly means that the latter believes some good work has been done,” said the NCP leader.

Addressing the gathering, Devendra Fadnavis also praised the contribution of Patel and his father Manohar Patel in setting up of schools and colleges in Bhandara and Gondia districts. He announced that the Maharashtra government was providing higher technical and medical education in Marathi language to the students which will benefit many students in the years ahead.