Sena, NCP Split Over Power And Family Struggle; Alliance With Shinde Emotional, Ajit Political: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, at the CNN-News18 Town Hall on Friday, said the split in Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was a result of their internal family power struggles. He said while the alliance with Eknath Shinde was emotional, the one with Ajit Pawar was political.

“There used to be a time when the Congress blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for everything. The parties split owing to struggle for power or legacy within the family. How would it have been possible for us to break Sharad Pawar’s party, the man who broke so many parties? He wanted to give legacy to Supriya tai, which is a common fight in parties run by families. Ajit Pawar felt he was pushed to the wall and he came with us. The same was the case with the Shiv Sena, when Eknath Shinde realised everything was being done for Aaditya Thackeray to get power. Because Shinde was growing in stature…After leaving Hindutva [based on Shiv Sena’s alliance with other parties], he thought how would he ask for votes…If somebody comes with us, we will take them along, after all, we are in politics.”

On Ajit Pawar’s ideology, Fadnavis said, “In politics, you have to care about political arithmetic. When we were running the government with Shinde, our vote share and popularity was rising. We wanted to increase our vote share further. At that time, when Ajit Pawar left the NCP, we thought of fixing the arithmetic and took him along. We are not ideologically aligned. With Shinde, our alliance was emotional. With Ajit dada, it was purely political. Maybe, if he keeps going the way he is, he might bond with us emotionally.”

Amid the laddoo controversy at Tirupati temple, he said, “We are against state control on temples. Temples have been made by society for faith. Society should run it with faith. State should just form regulations for administration, to take action in case of some wrong actions. In Maharashtra, Shirdi, Vithhal and Siddhivinayak temple… in cases when it gets huge to handle, the state needs to run it professionally to avoid mismanagement. These are exceptions. But it is the society’s rule… These things hurt sentiments. Prasad gives us purity. It is considered unadulterated. When suddenly you find out it has animal fat, it hurts faith. Playing with faith is not good.”

On vendors’ verification and display of names of owners in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Himachal to prevent adulteration, he said, “For consumer protection, any rule should not be seen as bad, nothing else should be implied. There was a time when we didn’t know about ingredients, now the new rules prevent exploitation. If states are forming rules to protect their consumers, there is nothing wrong in it.”

Fadnavis was part of a session, Can BJP Get Its Math Right?, held as part of the CNN-News18 Town Hall in Mumbai on September 27. Ahead of the Maharashtra elections, the theme of this edition was ‘Road to Delhi via Mumbai?’