Congress-NCP govt must resign: Devendra Fadnavis

Interview with BJP chief, Maharashtra

Buoyed by the stellar performance of his party and its allies in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s state unit chief, Devendra Fadnavis, says the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will gear up to dislodge the 15-year ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine in the Assembly elections slated for September-October. In an interview with Sanjay Jog, Fadanvis speaks at length on a number of issues. Edited excerpts:

Was the ‘Narendra Modi wave’ the sole reason behind the BJP and its allies winning 42 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra?

Certainly, the Narendra Modi wave swept Maharashtra. All sections of the society voted for the BJP and its allies. Modiji addressed 15 election meetings across the state, which were quite huge in number. This apart, the voters also voted against the 15-year-old Congress-NCP government in the state, as it has been corrupt, insensitive and inactive. There was anger among voters against both the Congress-led governments at the Centre and in the state. Voters cast their votes for a change.
 

As far as Maharashtra is concerned, we were quite successful in exposing various scams, irregularities and the mal-administration of the Congress-NCP rule. The BJP-Sena alliance got a record 51.2 per cent votes against 34.1 per cent by the Congress-NCP alliance in the state. More importantly, the BJP alone got five million more votes in the general elections. The BJP got double the number of votes compared to the 2009 polls. Of the 24 seats, the party has won 23 seats while our ally, the Shiv Sena bagged 18 seats and one by Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana.

Do you feel it is time for the Congress-led government in the state to step down in the wake of the poll results?

The Congress-NCP combine went into denial mode whenever questions were asked about problems facing the state. Our party demands that the present incumbents resign on moral ground and face Assembly elections.

The Congress has won a mere two seats while the NCP has won four. We strongly feel the government should face elections as people have expressed total distrust in it.

With the BJP winning more seats than the Shiv Sena, is it time to change the 169-119 seat-sharing formula struck in the 2009 Assembly polls?

Our party does not see any major issues to strike a poll pact with our allies. There will be a change in a few seats. However, our main objective is to defeat the Congress-NCP combine and we are quite confident about achieving it.

Will BJP contest coming assembly elections under the leadership of Gopinath Munde?

If the party feels so, Munde will have to leave power at Centre and come to Maharashtra.

Will Amit Shah be a man of action in Maharashtra after Uttar Pradesh?

State BJP will "expertise and guidance" of Narendra Modi's Man Friday Amit Shah, in helping propel the five-party Mahayuti alliance in the state to victory in the Assembly polls, due in just over five months.

What will be BJP-Shiv Sena led MayaYuti's (grand alliance) strategy to fight assembly polls in Maharashtra?

Maha Yuti will approach the voters in the state with a positive agenda. We will provide solutions to expedite regional and economic development, harness irrigation potential, increase farm growth and employment. Besides, Maha Yuti will also offer alternate models to remove corruption and bring in transparency in toll collection.

We will approach the court of law with a plea to make public the special investigation team's report on the alleged multi crore irrigation scam in Maharashtra. People should give the same decisive mandate to us in the Assembly polls as they did in the Lok Sabha polls.