Mumbai, Oct 29 Amid growing bickering in the ruling Mahayuti alliance over the Council elections results, a Shiv Sena leader has said that deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde should assume the top post, drawing sharp comments from Maharashtra BJP leaders who said he was speaking out of turn.
Former MLA Ravindra Dhangekar told reporters in Pune that the results reflected the people’s view of the Devendra Fadnavis-led government.
“When there are doubts about the state government’s image, such results are a reflection of it. When Eknath Shinde was chief minister, he helped Mahayuti to come to power. Shinde should again become chief minister,” he said.
Senior BJP minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule and MLC Pravin Darekar on Thursday lashed out at Dhangekar.
Bawankule said the mandate of Maharashtra’s voters was to make Devendra Fadnavis the chief minister, and Dhangekar had no authority to comment on the issue.
“Out of 149 contested seats (in 2024 Assembly elections), BJP won 137,” he said.
Darekar said that Dhangekar should “stay within his limits”.
“The state is progressing like never before under Fadnavis’s leadership. He hates Fadnavis so much that he never misses an opportunity to criticise him,” the BJP leader said.
“We never made any comment against your leadership and will never do so. We will not tolerate your attempts to tarnish Fadnavis’s image,” Darekar added.
Of the five graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies of the council which went to the polls on October 23, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi won three, while the Mahayuti alliance bagged two.
Earlier in the day, state BJP chief spokesperson Navnath Ban alleged that the Sena led by deputy Chief Minister Shinde did not fulfil its alliance obligations in Pune and Nagpur constituencies.
(PTI News)
