Devendra Fadnavis: 'Elections lost fun as Oppn not putting up fight'

Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Chief Minister of the State, Devendra Fadnavis has said that the elections have lost their usual fun because the opposition has conceded defeat. He said this while he was addressing a campaign rally for a BJP nominee and sitting MLA Sanjay Kelkar. Kelkar is contesting from Thane City’s assembly constituency. The Chief Minister said that there is no real fight in this election.  

Devendra Fadnavis on weak opposition 

The Maharashtra CM, in the rally at Thane, said that even if a child is asked who would win, he/she would answer “the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance”. Referring to desertions from NCP, Fadnavis said that party chief Sharad Pawar's situation was like that of the “jailer” in the film "Sholay”, who orders half his personnel to go this way and other half that way and finds that nobody is left to follow him. Fadnavis added that Congress veteran Sushilkumar Shinde had the foresight to suggest that Congress and NCP should merge. This is because then they can at least manage to get the post of leader of the opposition, said Devendra Fadnavis.  

Read: Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis: 'Cong-NCP accepted their defeat'

CM Fadnavis’ similar attack on Rahul Gandhi  

Devendra Fadnavis had targeted the opposition a few days ago as well. He had repeated the same thing at another rally but mentioned Rahul Gandhi with his statement. He said that the opposition have accepted defeat ahead of the Assembly polls as seen by Gandhi's absence from the poll campaign. He added, “They are already in the defeatist frame of mind. I read in newspapers that Rahul Gandhi is in Bangkok”. 

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Uddhav Thackeray on opposition 

The chief of Shiv Sena had also targeted the opposition earlier. He said, “Leaders like Sharad Pawar have now become jobless because of our growing power. They must have realised what it means to be jobless. The recently released manifesto of Congress-NCP promises to give 80% reservation for the sons-of-the-soil in all sectors, but it was the Sena which had first raised this demand. Congress leaders in Maharashtra should accept the defeat and go home instead of contesting the assembly elections as Rahul Gandhi has not visited the state.” 

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(With PTI Inputs)