Reportedly state congress president Nana Patole has told the bharatiya janata party won’t make Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde the chief minister if the ruling Mahayuti wins this month’s maharashtra assembly polls and the incumbent cm is virtually absent from the BJP’s posters and banners.
Meanwhile in the interview in nagpur, Patole said it was clear that deputy cm devendra fadnavis was the BJP’s face. Patole said “The bjp is now saying Eknath Shinde will be the CM. They are only saying we are fighting in his (Shinde’s) leadership, what happens later is not known…Amit Shah has said ‘humne de diya mauka’ (we gave a chance). bjp ke dikhane ke daant aur khane ke daant alag hain (BJP will say something today, but do something else tomorrow). They are not declaring any face".
Moreover he pointed out how bjp banners and posters were only showcasing Fadnavis. “So, fadnavis is BJP’s face it seems, like you say I am Congress’s face. On BJP’s banners, you cannot see Eknath Shinde’s face; so, people know the tactics of the bjp," Patole told News18. He quickly added that even Fadnavis’s win from the nagpur South-West seat was uncertain. The bjp leader has won from the seat five consecutive times, but Patole claimed it is a tight fight now. Patole also told that the congress had fulfilled guarantees in other states, and “they were not jumlas (empty promises) like that of the BJP". He pointed out how the MVA government earlier waived off Rs 19,000 crore worth of farm loans on coming to power, without any such promise during polls.