Mumbai: Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday ridiculed all speculations about leadership change in the state while dubbing it as "intellectual bankruptcy".
"One who wants to come to power doesn't announce it over social media. Hence, I call all the speculations about it as 'intellectual bankruptcy'," Fadnavis said while ridiculing media pundits for reading too much in non issues.
"It was an act of a 'politically naive' young social media executive who operated the official handle for the state BJP. There was no need to read too much into it," he added when he was asked about his old video being played on the official Twitter handle of the state BJP unit at an interview to a regional news channel.
'MahaYuti will win'
While reiterating his party's stand that the next elections will be contested under the leadership of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Fadnavis further said, "Our MahaYuti government is here and is here to stay. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde shall complete his whole tenure, not even a day less, and we shall contest elections under his leadership and win with flying colours."
"The video was deleted to avoid further speculations and controversy," Fadnavis said refuting speculations that there was any pressure on the party to delete the video. "We are a closely knit alliance. We have good communication among us and all are mature enough to not to lead to any political embroilment over any such innocuous video," he added.
Fadnavis also made it clear that the government stands on a very firm foundation despite some obvious challenges of having to run a three-party coalition. He also stated that there are hardly any chances for Shinde and members of his group being disqualified. While replying to more questions, he further added that even if the CM gets disqualified there are various other ways for him to remain in the seat and hence there is no danger for the government.
"Speculations about disqualification are given air by the Shiv Sena (UBT) to keep their flock together," Fadnavis added.
"Ajit Pawar was promised DCM's post and that we have kept. It was made clear to him that Shinde shall remain chief minister and he has agreed to it," Fadnavis said while responding to yet another question.
Fadnavis takes a dig at Uddhav Thackeray
Fadnavis also flayed the perception that most of the MLAs who supported the government have ED or CBI cases against them. "Some of them might have some cases. But, more than that they were seeing the misdeeds of the government under Uddhav Thackeray and hence they came with us. They knew there is no alternative but to go with the BJP if we want a stable and progressive government in Maharashtra. They came for development," Fadnavis said.
In other media interactions through the day Fadnavis also hit out at Sharad Pawar for saying that if he had 110 MLAs behind him, he would have formed a separate government. "He has underlined the difference between Sharad Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis. I'm with Eknath Shinde and shall remain so. He is our Chief Minister and we shall contest elections under his leadership," Fadnavis said.
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