In a battle of one-upmanship that it triggered over its ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls, the ruling Shiv Sena on Tuesday claimed that chief minister Eknath Shinde was the “most popular leader” than Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP and he had the numerical edge over the latter in the race to the chief minister’s post after the polls. Putting out full-page advertisements the leading English and Marathi newspapers in the state on the basis of the recent pre-poll survey findings, the Shiv Sena unleashed a “Rashtramadhe Modi, Maharashtraath Shinde” (Modi for India, Shinde for Maharashtra)” campaign, ignoring the claims of Fadnavis being the rightful chief ministerial in the 2024 Assembly polls based on the fact that he was the leader of the of the dominant ruling alliance partner BJP.
Tuesday’s development came less than a fortnight after Shinde — who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah along with deputy chief minister Fadnavis in New Delhi on June 4 – claimed that the Shiv Sena led by him and BJP would contest all the forthcoming elections — Lok Sabha, State Assembly and local body polls together on a development plank.
In its advertisement, the ruling Shiv Sena quoted an election survey and said that as per the survey done for the chief minister’s post, 26.1 per cent of people in Maharashtra “desire” Shinde to be the next chief minister of the state, while 23.2 per cent of the people “wish” to see Fadanvis as the next CM.