Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s haste to attain power and “childish comments” sank the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra and the latter became the Opposition leader.
With the coming together of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, what has happened in Maharashtra is acceptable to the country as well, Mr. Raut claimed in his column Rokhthok in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana .
In a veiled attack on the Central BJP leaders without naming anyone, he said Maharashtra did not bow down to the “mob rule-like” functioning of Delhi.
What is significant is that Mr. Thackeray came to power by dethroning the powerful “Modi-Shah hold”, remarked Mr. Raut, executive editor of Saamana . He also expressed confidence that “this government (of the Sena, NCP and Congress) will survive for five years.”
“I find it amusing that the people who dubbed Ajit Pawar’s tie-up with Mr. Fadnavis as a ‘scripted’ plan by Mr. Pawar, are bowing before the NCP chief after formation of the (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government,” he said.
Ahead of the Assembly polls, Mr. Fadnavis made “childish comments” like there would be no opposition party left in the State, the era of Mr. Pawar was ending, and Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi would be the main Opposition.
“But he (Mr. Fadnavis) himself became the Opposition leader,” the Rajya Sabha member said.
Mr. Fadnavis said he would come back, but his haste to attain power sank the BJP within 80 hours,the Sena leader commented.
“His overconfidence and reliance on Delhi-based senior leaders destroyed his politics. The developments of last month look like a new script of the film Sinhasan (throne),” Mr. Raut said.
He was referring to the 1979 Marathi film of the same name, which was loosely based on late author Arun Sadhu’s novels Sinhasan and Mumbai Dinank .
Mr. Raut also said the Governor’s office played the role of a “villain” in the 80-hour-long government of Mr. Fadnavis and Ajit.
“Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari once told me he would not do anything beyond the Constitution’s framework. But he administered oath to Mr. Fadnavis and Ajit in a haste. The order from the top (apparently referring to the Centre) seems to have played a bigger role,” Mr. Raut said.
Ajit’s “desperate act” (to support the BJP) brought the Sena, NCP and Congress closer and cemented their alliance, he said.
It also created pressure on other NCP MLAs, who rebelled, and as everyone went back to Mr. Pawar, his nephew Ajit also returned, the Sena leader said.
“Had Mr. Pawar not taken the initiative, this alliance would not have materialised,” Mr. Raut stated.
Published - December 02, 2019 03:42 am IST
