Hyderabad, Dec 01 :
Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ haste to attain power and “childish comments” sank the BJP in Maharashtra and the latter became the opposition leader. With the coming together of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, what has happened in Maharashtra is acceptable to the country as well, Raut claimed in his column ‘Rokhthok’ in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’. In a veiled attack on the central BJP leaders without naming anyone, he said Maharashtra did not bow down to the “mob-rule” like functioning of Delhi. What is significant is that Uddhav Thackeray came to power by dethroning the powerful “Modi-Shah hold”, remarked Raut, who is the executive editor of ‘Saamana’. He also expressed confidence that “this government (of Sena-NCP-Congress alliance) will survive for five years.” “I find it amusing that the people who dubbed Ajit Pawar’s tie-up with Fadnavis as a ‘scripted’ plan of Sharad Pawar, are now bowing before the NCP chief after formation of the (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government,” Raut said. Ahead of the Assembly polls, Fadnavis made “childish comments” like there would be no opposition party left in the state, the era of Sharad Pawar was ending and Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi would be main opposition. “But he (Fadnavis) himself became the opposition leader,” the Rajya Sabha member quipped. Fadnavis said he would come back, but his haste to attain power sank the BJP within 80 hours, he commented. “Over-confidence and his (Fadnavis’) reliance on Delhi-based senior leaders destroyed his politics. The developments of last month look like a new script of the film ‘Sinhasan’ (throne),” Raut said. He was referring to the 1979 Marathi film of the same name, which was loosely based on late author Arun Sadhu’s novels ‘Sinhasan’ and ‘Mumbai Dinank’. Raut further said the Maharashtra governor’s office played the role of a “villain” in the 80-hour-long government of Fadnavis and NCP leader Ajit Pawar.
