Amid Assembly election campaigning, the BJP general secretary and former Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde on Tuesday asserted that if his name is being discussed as the state chief minister that means he will not make it to the top seat.
He also dropped a hint that if BJP emerges as the single largest party then it may spring a surprise by bringing in a new face as the Chief Minister on the lines of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
Tawde's statement politically is significant especially when the MahaYuti has not revealed the Chief Minister's post but repeatedly said that the grand alliance is contesting the present elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
"The names that are discussed do not become the Chief Minister. If my name is discussed then I will not be the Chief Minister. You have seen what happened in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Did anybody know Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma or Mohan Yadav of Madhya Pradesh prior to when the names cropped up for Chief Ministers of those two states? So, when my name is being deliberated, I will, for sure, not turn into a Chief Minister, said Tawde who remains engaged with BJP's functionings at national level now.
He has been saying that he does not want to return to Maharashtra in the near future as he is busy with completing the assignment given by the party's central leadership.
Tawde also made statements which point out the very fact that if BJP was contesting at 148 seats projecting the self-as big brother-in MahaYuti is rather full of confidence as they have a greater propensity of victory than Shiv Sena or NCP in general elections and hence stands in for a natural candidate to turn into the post of CM.
This is also important because he was Chief Minister of this state from 2014 to 2019. He became Chief Minister the second time in just 80 hours because he has to resign after NCP leader Ajit Pawar went back to his party.
Given that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government had collapsed, Fadnavis looked the obvious choice to lead the MahaYuti government but missed his chance after the Central BJP leadership decided to name Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister.
Tawde, who had played a very important role in soothing two-term MP Gopal Shetty and making him withdraw his nomination as an independent, said that MahaYuti has an edge as a slew of welfare and development schemes including Ladki Bahin Yojana, free electricity to farmers, training allowance of Rs 10,000 to students, Ujjwala Yojana among others have benefited the people.
Tawde criticized the Maha Vikas Aghadi for bringing on the traitors' report in the run-up to elections but questioned who did the betrayal targeting the Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray for leaving BJP and joining hands with Congress and NCP to form the government after the 2019 Assembly elections.
Votes were sought as a grand alliance but after the election results, he (Uddhav Thackeray) formed the government with Congress and NCP which were his party's traditional rivals. Who betrayed the people? Uddhav Thackeray should look in the mirror if he wants to speak on the traitors' report.
Commenting on NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar's statement that the MahaYuti government stopped the other schemes and diverted money to Ladki Bahin Yojana, Tawde said: "The beloved sisters should remember his (Sharad Pawar's) comment. When Maha Vikas Aghadi was in government, it was involved in extorting money from dance bars. Bombs were planted near the houses of entrepreneurs. People remember this.". Although the Modi government ruled between 2014 and 2024 and again returned to power after general elections, the opposition can still allege this government of anything from corruption.
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