Targetting the ruling BJP for the second consecutive day, MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Monday said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had no right to continue in his post, given that the latter had voted for a separate Vidarbha State in a referendum conducted by an NGO in December 2013.
A day after he lashed out at the ruling BJP in Maharashtra for its failure to spruce up the Hutatma Chowk, a memorial for martyrs who laid down crusading for the united Maharashtra in 1950s, on the occasion of ‘Maharashtra Day,’ Raj singled out Fadnavis for vicious criticism for having rooted for a separate Vidarbha State in the past.
Displaying a copy of a tweet that Fadnavis had put on December 16, 2013, in which the then senior BJP legislator had confirmed that he had voted for a separate Vidarbha in referendum held by a Nagpur-based Jan Manch, the MNS chief, “He (Fadnavis) has written in the tweet — ‘I voted for separate Vidarbha. Did youIJ’ Devendra Fadnavis who votes for a separate Vidarbha has no right to continue as the Chief Minister”.
The tweet that the MNS chief released to the media at a news conference at his Dadar residence carries two photographs—one showing Fadnavis dropping his ballot into the box and another showing his finger in front of a ballot box, after voting in the referendum conducted by “Jan Manch” across Vidarbha region on December 16, 2013. His tweets reads: “I voted for Separate Vidarbha. DID YOUIJ”.
Fadnavis hails from Vidarbha region, in the past, he was a strong votary of separate Vidarbha state. Though it had skipped the mention of the separate Vidarbha issue in its manifesto for the October 2014 Maharashtra Assembly polls after Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled out the division of Maharashtra in his election campaign, the Maharashtra BJP had in the past demanded statehood for Vidarbha region.
On its part, the Maharashtra BJP dismissed the MNS chief’s demand for Fadnavis’ resignation.
Talking to media persons, Maharashtra’s BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said, “He (Raj) has needlessly raked up a two put out by Fadnavis two years ago. That was just a referendum held by an NGO two years ago and not a general election. The country’s Constitution has given everyone right to express his or her opinion”
“Fadnavis has not committed any breach of propriety. Fadnavis is an MlA elected by people from a constituency in Nagpur. And he is the leader of the single largest party in Maharashtra Assembly. I do not see any reason why the MNS should make a hue and cry of an old issue,” Bhandari said.
At his news conference earlier, the MNS chief charged that Maharashtra’s former Advocate General Shreehari Aney was the mask of the BJP and that the latter was being used to clamour for separate Vidarbha and Marathwada states. “The BJP is using Aney as its mask. First it wants to carve out Vidarbha and Marathwada from Maharashtra and later take out Mumbai from Maharashtra. The whole conspiracy is being hatched at Nagpur”.
Aney — who has long been a votary of a separate Vidarbha state and whose controversial remarks clamouring for a separate Marthawada state led to his resignation from his Constitutional post in March this year — had on Sunday hoisted a multi-coloured Vidarbha flag at a private resort at Bajaj Nagar Square in Nagpur, reigniting the demand for a separate Vidarbha.
Because of Aney, some sections of people of Marathwada had on Sunday also voiced for the first time their demand for a separate state by hoisting their regional flag carrying a map of their region at Jalna.
The MNS chief also hit out at both the ruling BJP and its alliance partner, Shiv Sena, for their failure to spruce up Hutatma chowk, a memorial set up in south Mumbai to honour 106 martyrs who laid down their lives for United Maharashtra during the Samyukta Maharashtra movement in the 1950s on the occasion of “Maharashtrta Day” on Sunday.
“The previous Congress was much better than the BJP. Earlier, every year, we would get to see the Hutatma Chowk spruced up and decorated with flowers. This year we do not get to even one flower. This is bad. We do not expect this kind of a thing when both the BJP and Shiv Sena are ruling the state,” Raj had said on Sunday.
Training his gun on Fadnavis for the latter’s claim that the Maharashtra government had constructed 33,000 wells, the MNS chief said that the chief minister had offered to provide him specific details of the wells dug up in the state but was still provide details.
“Through a RTI query addressed to the chief minister’s office we had sought details. However, the chief minister’s office has told us that the CMO does not have information and that it was forwarding our query to the State Water Resources department,” the MNS chief said.
“Our information is that there is absolutely no truth in the chief minister’s claim. The wells he has spoken about are paper and have not been dug in actuality. If any wells have been dug, they are mere pits. All they have done is to build boundary wall around old wells. The state government has spent as much as Rs 450 crore to Rs 500 crore. Most of this money has been cornered by the contractors,”Raj added.