Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday put Devendra Fadnavis in his line of fire saying his “haste to attain power” sank the BJP in the state and turned him from chief minister to opposition leader.
Rajya Sabha MP and editor of Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, Raut claimed in his column ‘Rokhthok’ that ahead of the Assembly polls, Fadnavis made “childish 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.
“But he (Fadnavis) himself became the opposition leader,” Raut wrote. Fadnavis said he would come back, but his haste to attain power sank the BJP within 80 hours, said the Sena leader who regularly baited the party’s former ally after the Maharashtra assembly elections,
“Over-confidence and his (Fadnavis’) reliance on Delhi-based senior leaders destroyed his politics,” Raut said.
In a veiled attack on the BJP’s central leadership without naming anyone, Raut said Maharashtra did not bow down to the “mob-rule” like functioning of Delhi.
He also expressed confidence that Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government will survive for five years. “I find it amusing that the people who dubbed Ajit Pawar’s tie-up with Fadnavis as a ‘scripted’ plan of Sharad Pawar, are now bowing before the NCP chief after formation of the (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government,” Raut said.
{{/usCountry}}He also expressed confidence that Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government will survive for five years. “I find it amusing that the people who dubbed Ajit Pawar’s tie-up with Fadnavis as a ‘scripted’ plan of Sharad Pawar, are now bowing before the NCP chief after formation of the (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government,” Raut said.
{{/usCountry}}The pugnacious Rajya Sabha attacked the Maharashtra governor’s office for playing the role of a “villain” in the formation of Fadnavis government that lasted 80 hours.
“Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari once told me he would not do anything beyond the Constitution’s framework. But he later administered oath to Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in haste. The order from the ‘top’ (apparently referring to the Centre) seems to have played a bigger role,” he said.
Ajit Pawar’s “desperate act” to support the BJP brought the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress closer and cemented their alliance, he said as he hailed the NCP chief.
“Had Sharad Pawar not taken the initiative, this alliance would not have materialised,” Raut wrote.