Mumbai, Nov 5 Amid Assembly election campaigning, the BJP general secretary and former Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde on Tuesday asserted that if his name is being discussed as the state chief minister that means he will not make it to the top seat.
He also hinted that if BJP emerges as the single largest party then it may spring a surprise by bringing in a new face as the Chief Minister on the lines of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
Tawde’s statement is politically significant especially when the MahaYuti has not revealed the Chief Minister’s post but repeatedly said that the grand alliance is contesting the present elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
“The names that are discussed do not become the Chief Minister. If my name is discussed then I will not be the Chief Minister. You have seen what happened in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Did anyone know Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma or Mohan Yadav of Madhya Pradesh before their names were announced to the Chief Ministers of these two states? So, if my name is being discussed, I will definitely not become the Chief Minister,” said Tawde who is currently engaged in the BJP’s functioning at the national level.
He has repeatedly said that he is not keen to come back to Maharashtra in the near future as he is busy completing the assignment given to him by the party’s central leadership.
Tawde’s statement also signals that BJP, which is contesting 148 seats by projecting itself as a big brother in the MahaYuti, is quite confident to win more seats compared to Shiv Sena and NCP and it will be a natural claimant for the Chief Minister post.
This is also crucial as Devendra Fadnavis ruled the state as Chief Minister between 2014 and 2019 and became the Chief Minister for the second time in just 80 hours as he had to resign after NCP leader Ajit Pawar went back to his party.
After the Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapse, Fadnavis, who was considered an obvious choice to lead the MahaYuti government, missed the opportunity after the Central BJP leadership’s decision to make Eknath Shinde the Chief Minister.
Tawde, who played a crucial role in calming the two-term MP Gopal Shetty and making him withdraw his nomination as an independent, said that MahaYuti has an edge as a slew of welfare and development schemes including Ladki Bahin Yojana, free electricity to farmers, training allowance of Rs 10,000 to students, Ujjwala Yojana among others have benefited the people.
Tawde criticised the Maha Vikas Aghadi for bringing on traitors’ report in the run-up to the elections but questioned who did the betrayal targeting the Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray for leaving BJP and joining hands with Congress and NCP to form the government after the 2019 Assembly elections.
Votes were sought as a grand alliance but after the election results, he (Uddhav Thackeray) formed the government with Congress and NCP which were his party’s traditional rivals. Who betrayed the people? Uddhav Thackeray should look in the mirror if he wants to speak on the traitors’ report.
Commenting on NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar’s statement that the MahaYuti government stopped the other schemes and diverted money to Ladki Bahin Yojana, Tawde said: “The beloved sisters should remember his (Sharad Pawar’s) comment. When Maha Vikas Aghadi was in government, it was involved in extorting money from dance bars. Bombs were planted near the houses of entrepreneurs. People remember this. Although the Modi government was in power between 2014 and 2024 and again came back to power after general elections, the opposition could accuse it of any corruption.”
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