Despite his demotion as the deputy chief minister, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday received a grand welcome in his home town Nagpur. Even though Fadnavis did not forget to thank home minister Amit Shah along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president JP Nadda for his present post, the latter’s photos were missing from the posters and flexes displayed across Nagpur.
A large number of BJP leaders and cadre have blamed Shah for Fadnavis’ demotion even though he was the obvious contender for the CM’s post after the collapse of the MVA government.
However, after a massive road show, a day after the Eknath Shinde-BJP alliance won the vote of trust in the state Assembly, Fadnavis revealed that he had proposed to the central leadership that Shinde should be made the Maharashtra Chief Minister. ‘’I took the proposal to make Eknath Shinde the Chief Minister and it was accepted by the party seniors. BJP has 115 MLAs with it and therefore the party would have got the post of Chief Minister. But our party made Eknath Shinde the Chief Minister,’’ he noted.
"I am happy that our party has taken a decision and indicated again that BJP is not greedy for power. If we had insisted, we would have got the Chief Minister's post. Our leaders Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda took this decision (of making Shinde CM) by keeping me in the loop,’’ said Fadnavis. He reiterated that after that he had decided not to join the new government but after the instructions from the central leaders he changed his mind and took the oath of deputy chief minister.
"Eknath Shinde is my colleague. We have worked together. Today he is a leader. We are working under his leadership and I have assured him of my full support. He must succeed as Chief Minister. We will bring Marashtra back to number one, ”said Fadnavis.
Fadnavis reiterated that the estranged ally Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray had backstabbed BJP after the 2019 assembly elections by parting ways and forming the government by joining NCP and Congress despite the mandate was for an alliance. However, he argued that now the people’s government has come to power and it will take decisions for their benefit.
"The people of Nagpur have always given me love and elected me five times. Today I have come to Nagpur for the first time after becoming Deputy Chief Minister. I express my gratitude to the people who have come to show their love for me," the Deputy Chief Minister said.
