Fadnavis predicts 200 seats for MahaYuti in Maharashtra

Mumbai, July 6 (IANS) At the maiden joint rally after the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, the MahaYuti partners BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP on Saturday sounded the bugle for the upcoming Assembly election with a resolve to work together to retain power in Maharashtra.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis went a step further and announced that the MahaYuti will win 200 of the 288 assembly seats in the state if it gets 25 lakh votes more than the Lok Sabha elections. Another Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said the opposition, which is scared by a slew of proposals for women, girls, youth and other sections in the budget, may run a campaign saying these sops are an eyewash but the MahaYuti partners will have to counter their charges by flagging off the development plank. He admitted that the Centre’s decision to ban onion exports adversely impacted MahaYuti’s prospects in the general elections and therefore he urged the union minister Piyush Goyal, who was present at the rally, not to impost onion export ban at the time of Assembly elections but do everything possible to protect the farmers’ interests.Chief Minister Eknath Shinde asked the MahaYuti leaders and cadres not to be complacent and to step-up efforts to reach out to the voters by taking up a number of development works carried out by the state government in the last two years to ensure MahaYuti’s victory.Fadnavis admitted that the MahaYuti did not counter Maha Vikas Aghadi’s fake narrative effectively during the general elections. “We noticed that they (MVA) lied every day but we remained oblivious. Our battle was with the fourth party, the fake narrative, that led to MahaYuti winning fewer seats. Truth is eternal, falsehood is not long. You can win an election by lying, but you can’t lie consistently,” he said, He said that it is now the job of the MahaYuti leaders and cadres to not only project the state government’s decisions for farmers, women, girls, youth and proposals to spur Maharashtra’s growth but also to focus on enrolment of maximum eligible beneficiaries for various schemes.Fadnavis snubbed the spokespersons of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP for their verbal duel, especially with regard to seat sharing. “If anyone wants to speak, he should ask his leaders first and only after their approval can they make their comments,” he said.Pawar admitted that apart from MVA’s fake narrative, the MahaYuti could not get the desired seats due to its failure to maintain coordination during the Lok Sabha elections. “However, the MahaYuti will have to work unitedly by maintaining proper coordination to win the assembly election in Maharashtra. The MahaYuti needs to hold similar rallies in districts, tehsils and villages by reaching out to the voters taking up state government’s development works and its proposals for various sections,” he said. He said that if the opposition spreads a fake narrative, it will have to be immediately countered strongly. Shinde took a swipe at Congress for accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of corruption. “Congress has no right to accuse PM Modi, especially in the wake of various scams including Bofors, fodder scam, coal scam,” he saidHe also targeted his former boss and Shiv Sena UBT Chief Uddhav Thackeray, saying that, “I work face-to-face not through Facebook live.”Shinde exhorted the MahaYuti leaders and workers to work hard for its victory in the Assembly election. “If MahaYuti activists immediately respond to the fake narrative, the intentions of the opposition will be thwarted. Go to the voters with the welfare schemes undertaken by the MahaYuti government. The MahaYuti will win in the assembly election,” he said.–IANSsj/dan