Deriding the Opposition’s planned show of unity at a gathering in Patna scheduled for this week, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on June 18 said it was not possible to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi even if all Opposition parties joined hands, and that Mr. Modi remained the “unchallenged king”.
Mr. Fadnavis further claimed that the BJP would win an even higher tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections than its previous score of 302 in the 2019 parliamentary poll.
Addressing a party gathering in Nagpur to welcome the ostracised Congress leader Ashish Deshmukh into the BJP’s fold, Mr. Fadnavis disparaged the joint Opposition meeting scheduled to take part in Patna on June 23.
“All Opposition parties are now planning to meet in Patna. A similar attempt was made ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The result was that the Congress only won a mere 48 seats,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
“In a jungle, no matter how many animals unite, they cannot hunt a tiger who rules the place. Similarly, Mr. Modi is a tiger. While I am not saying the Opposition leaders are animals, no matter what their numbers are, they cannot defeat the PM,” he further quipped.
Hinting there was no consensus among Opposition leaders, Mr. Fadnavis issued an open challenge to them to declare their leader before the 2024 General Elections.
“West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is unhappy with the Congress because of its affinity to the Left parties. Nitish Kumar has his own issues…nobody wishes to acknowledge anybody as leader. Similar cracks have developed within the MVA [Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance] in Maharashtra as well. The Congress and the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) are upset with Uddhav Thackeray and their leaders are grumbling as to why they must tolerate Thackeray’s highhandedness,” Mr. Fadnavis alleged.
Meanwhile, welcoming Mr. Deshmukh to the BJP’s fold, Mr. Fadnavis said it was a “true homecoming” and praised the former’s leadership qualities and connect with people.
The Maharashtra Congress recently expelled Mr. Ashish Deshmukh, a former MLA from Katol who joined the BJP in 2014 and defeated his uncle, former Home Minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh.
.“Mr. Ashish Deshmukh has displayed great courage by announcing he did not wish to contest the polls but only work for the strengthening of the BJP. Usually, when people join a new party, they expect a position or a ticket,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
While in the Congress, Mr. Deshmukh had raised eyebrows with his statements highlighting the schisms within the Congress’ leadership in the State, particularly in the Vidarbha region. He had also trained his guns on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying that Mr. Gandhi ought to apologise to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community over his remarks on the Modi surname.
The son of former Maharashtra Congress chief Ranjit Deshmukh, Mr. Ashish Deshmukh had termed the show cause notice issued to him by the State Congress leadership last month as “unfortunate”, claiming it was part of a “larger conspiracy” to discredit him as he had been questioning the style of functioning of the Maharashtra Congress’ top brass.
Mr. Ashish Deshmukh had resigned from the BJP in 2018, citing the failure of Mr. Fadnavis’ then BJP-led government in the State and the Modi government at the Centre to resolve “people’s problems”.
Ironically, he was the Congress’ nominee against Mr. Fadnavis from the Nagpur South West seat in the 2019 Assembly polls, where he was defeated by the latter.
According to observers, Mr. Ashish Deshmukh is attempting to increase his influence in the Katol and Saoner Assembly constituencies in Nagpur, particularly following his uncle Anil Deshmukh’s arrest in late 2021 following the Enforcement Directorate’s probe in a money laundering case.
With the BJP recently suffering defeats at the Zilla Parishad and Nagpur MLC polls, Mr. Fadnavis and the BJP leadership in the State see the utility in pitting Mr. Deshmukh against the MVA to regain their influence at the local level in Nagpur.
