Raut blames ex-CM’s ‘childish comments’ for BJP’s downfall

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday slammed former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, saying his “childish comments” and “haste” to attain power led to the downfall

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday slammed former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, saying his “childish comments” and “haste” to attain power led to the downfall of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra.

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Raut, in his weekly column Rokhthok in Sena mouthpiece, Saamana, said Fadnavis made comments that there would be no “Opposition party left in the state, the era of Sharad Pawar was ending and Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi would be the main Opposition”.

“Fadnavis said he would come back, but his haste to attain power sank the BJP within 80 hours... But he (Fadnavis) himself became the Opposition leader... Over-confidence and his (Fadnavis’) reliance on Delhi-based senior leaders destroyed the politics of Maharashtra,” Raut wrote. He added that NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s “desperate act” to support the BJP, brought the Sena, NCP and the Congress together and cemented the alliance. Raut said the coming together of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and Sena chief and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has been accepted by Maharashtra and the government will complete its full term.”The rest of the country, too, wants it (formation of anti-BJP front).This government will last for five years. Definitely!” he said.

According to Raut, Gandhi had doubts over joining hands with Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, but Pawar played a major role in the formation of the new front in Maharashtra. “Had Sharad Pawar not taken the initiative [to forge the alliance of the three parties], the current change of guard in Maharashtra would not have happened. Initially, even Sharad Pawar was not ready to believe that such a government could come into existence,” Raut, who met Pawar to moot the tri-party formation, wrote in the column.

In a bid to help Gandhi take a decision in favour of the alliance, Pawar told Gandhi that late Sena supremo Bal Thackeray had cordial relations with former prime minister Indira Gandhi, Raut said.

“The Hindi-speaking community in Mumbai also votes for the Sena, so the party continues to win the civic elections. Pawar told this to Sonia Gandhi,” the Sena leader added.

Raut further said the Maharashtra governor’s office played the role of a “villain” in the 80-hour-long government of Fadnavis and NCP leader Ajit Pawar.

Will be forever with Hindutva, says Uddhav

CM Uddhav Thackeray said he was “with the ideology of Hindutva and will forever be with it”. This assumes importance in the backdrop of Sena’s alliance with NCP and Cong, which had insisted that Sena adopt a “secular” ideology. “For a brief period after 2014 Assembly polls, Sena was in Oppn...But then too, we did not give up our Hindutva, he said.

He slammed the BJP saying his Hindutva does not allow him to lie.