Mumbai, Feb 14 (FN Bureau) Refusing to heed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ comments linking his early-morning swearing-in as chief minister in 2019 with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Tuesday said basic issues of inflation, unemployment, and farmer’s distress were more important to his party. Patole said Congress does not want to fall for Devendra Fadnavis’s claim that the early morning swearing-in was done after discussions with Pawar. “After three and a half years of this incident, why did Fadnavis realize it now and why didn’t you speak about it earlier?” he asked. Creating a political storm, Fadnavis has stated that his surprise early morning swearing-in as the CM after the 2019 elections was done with Pawar’s consent.
In a sudden dawn development, Fadnavis had taken oath as the CM with NCP leader and Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar as his deputy after alliance talks with the Shiv Sena broke down in 2019. However, the duo had to resign after three days as the junior Pawar could not muster enough MLAs from the NCP. The development helped lift the President’s Rule in the state, clearing the decks for the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP’s coalition government called the Maha Vikas Aghadi. Talking to the journalists, Patole said that the condition of farmers in Maharashtra now was “very precarious”. Prices of cotton, onion, and soybeans have fallen and the central government is importing cotton.
Inflation and unemployment have increased, farmers are committing suicide every day, and education for the children of the poor is still under question. He alleged there was law and order in the state, and even MLAs were not safe and dubbed Fadnavis’ comments as BJP’s ploy to divert the public attention from the main issues by bringing to the fore some irrelevant matters ahead of the elections. But this will not work now as people understand this ploy of the BJP, he claimed. “There is no point in discussing what happened during the government formation in 2019 today. This incident is history, there is no reason to discuss it today. If this is the case, Fadnavis should also tell what happened in 2014, when Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde had become the leader of the opposition. “BJP can do anything for power. Even now there is an unconstitutional government in the state, this Shinde-Fadnavis government has betrayed the people and the farmers. Inflation has made it difficult for the common man to survive,” the Congress leader said.