Saying that the 2024 Lok Sabha election results would not see ‘a Modi wave’ but a ‘Modi tsunami’, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on April 3 took potshots at NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar for helping to make Wardha in the State’s Vidarbha region a “Congress-free” zone.
Addressing a rally in Wardha while campaigning for the BJP candidate, incumbent MP Ramdas Tadas, Mr. Fadnavis mocked the Congress and Mr. Pawar by saying: “We must thank Pawar saaheb for achieving what we [BJP] could not do in Wardha. He ensured that the Congress symbol disappears from here.”
Mr. Fadnavis was alluding to the fact that the Congress could not find a suitable candidate in Wardha, despite Mahatma Gandhi’s association with the place. The Sevagram Ashram in Wardha was Gandhiji’s residence from 1936 onwards.
Long a Congress bastion, Wardha is the only Lok Sabha seat in Vidarbha that the Mr. Pawar-led NCP faction will contest this election. The BJP’s Ramdas Tadas had defeated Congress candidates in the 2014 and the 2019 polls.
Saying that Mr. Pawar had helped “fulfil the BJP’s dream” in Wardha, Mr. Fadnavis said the NCP leader had “pushed out the Congress from Mahatma Gandhi’s Wardha.”
Mr. Fadnavis also expressed confidence that the BJP and its allies would cross the 400-seat mark as often touted by BJP leaders.
Addressing a second rally in nearby Akola, Mr. Fadnavis rubbished allegations by the Opposition that the BJP was trying to change the Constitution.
“Nobody can change the Constitution or curtail the rights provided to citizens. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached the top post owing to the rights given under the Constitution,” Mr. Fadnavis said, while campaigning for the BJP’s nominee Anup Dhotre for the Akola Lok Sabha seat. Mr. Dhotre filed his nomination today.
Mr. Fadnavis said the Congress never allowed Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar to get elected in polls and the party would do the same with his grandson, Prakash Ambedkar, who is the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s candidate from Akola.
Both Akola and Wardha go to polls in the second phase on April 26.
