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In scathing Saamana piece, Shiv Sena taunts former ally BJP on 80-hour Fadnavis tenure
It also exhorted the former chief minister to take lessons in communication and cooperation from the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi.
The Shiv Sena on Tuesday taunted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis, urging him to do his work as Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly, instead of disrupting work during the first budget session of the new government that began on Monday.
In its mouthpiece Saamana, the Sena said, “If the Leader of the Opposition does his job diligently and has knowledge, many people and officers alike approach him with work, exactly like it is with the Chief Minister. Then the Opposition leader can function like a shadow chief minister. But Fadnavis has half-baked knowledge.”
It also exhorted the former chief minister to take lessons in communication and cooperation from the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) while refuting Fadnavis’ allegations that there is miscommunication and lack of dialogue in the three alliance partners.
Further lashing out at Fadnavis for not attending Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s programme to discuss state affairs over tea, organised at his official bungalow over the weekend, the Saamana article said, “Discussions for the good of Maharashtra could have happened.”
Fadnavis had taken to social media on the weekend after missing Thackeray’s tea programme, and said, “There is no point in attending a discussion with MVA as Leader of the Opposition, because MVA does not have any internal communication.”
In response, Saamana said on Tuesday, “There is no miscommunication in MVA. Everyone in MVA is resolved to run the government and maintain its 5-year tenure. If this cannot be digested by the Opposition, it cannot be helped.” Saamana also said that the coming together of three different parties with diverse ideologies to form the government is also proof of the dialogue between them.
Taking a jibe at its former ally BJP, the Sena further said, “In the brief 80 hours that Fadnavis was the CM in Maharashtra, before MVA formed the government, he held dialogue with everyone including Enforcement Directorate, Crime Investigation Bureau, Raj Bhavan, but could not break even a single MLA from the then Opposition of NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena.”
“There is an opinion doing rounds at present that MVA should organise classes in communication and invite all senior BJP leaders to it. If BJP had been good at dialogue, Maharashtra’s political situation would have been very different,” Saamana added.
