1 more Maharashtra min will resign in 8 days: State BJP chief
On Monday, Devendra Fadnavis had also said that more names will come to light for their involvement in the “extortion” case during CBI probe
High on morale, after two Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ministers’ resignation in the past 35 days, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to up the ante against the state government. Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday said that one more MVA minister will resign in the next eight days.
Speaking at Pune on the occasion of BJP’s 41st foundation day, Patil said there are at least seven ministers with serious criminal offences in MVA government.
“There are six-seven ministers in the state cabinet who are facing serious criminal charges. One of the ministers is facing imprisonment for assaulting a policeman, while another has recently revealed his relationship outside wedlock. One minister’s son-in-law is in jail in connection with a drug case, while another is facing charges of beating a party worker. We are not interested in taking the resignation of any minister, but it is going to happen naturally. Like in cricket, the first few batsmen bat for a longer time, but the tail-enders fall quickly. Similarly, the next resignations from MVA ministers will come at shorter intervals,” he said, adding that while the list of wrongdoings of some MVA ministers has already been in the public domain, a few more names will be added to it in the next few days.
“The MVA government will collapse under its own deeds. There is no need to put in special efforts to topple it. BJP will fight the elections on its own and form the government without joining hands with any other party,” Patil said.
According to BJP leaders, the state unit has decided to go become more aggressive against MVA government over the issues of corruption and lockdown.
“We have no specific strategy to topple the [Uddhav] Thackeray government as it would not benefit us in any given way. Even immediate elections would not help us in winning the seats required to form the government. As such, our aim is to taint the ruling parties as much as possible and create negative public sentiments against them. For that, we have been capitalising every given opportunity, which keep coming without any great effort,” said a BJP leader, requesting anonymity.
On Monday, leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis had also said that more names will come to light for their involvement in the “extortion” case during the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) probe. “There are few more names that will be exposed in the course of investigation. The alleged involvement of the [former] home minister is just the tip of the iceberg. I believe many heavyweights from the ruling parties are involved in the entire case of extortion,” he said.
Maharashtra Congress’s general secretary Sachin Sawant said that the claims by BJP leaders are out of the helplessness and grid for power.
“They are talking about the charges faced by our ministers but what did they do about their ministers who faced even more serious charges? CBI had lodged an FIR (first information report) against Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar (labour minister in the Fadnavis government), despite which he was made a minister. Many other ministers from their cabinet faced serious charges, but were clean chits. There is no substance in what Patil is saying,” said Sawant.
