After ending the BJP’s three-decade-old hold on the Kasba Peth Assembly constituency in Maharashtra’s Pune district, Ravindra Dhangekar of the Congress has criticised Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s style of politics and said it would badly damage the BJP in the long run.
Dhangekar said Maharashtra is known for cultured politicians like Yashwantrao Chavan, Sharad Pawar, Balasaheb Thackeray and Prithviraj Chavan. He said the style and outlook of Fadnavis, the most powerful BJP leader in the state, is vindictive.
“People praise Nitin Gadkari and Sharad Pawar, even behind their backs. The reason is that they indulge in constructive and inclusive politics of development. In Fadnavis’s case, you don’t see much work on the ground; instead, you see efforts to destroy the opponents. That’s his agenda. But this will not end well for the BJP. Today, they are feeling good but it is my intuition that Fadnavis will take the BJP into the abyss. He may get momentary pleasure from doing these things, but this won’t last. When he’s out of power, people won’t even offer him namaskar,” Dhangekar told a Marathi newspaper.
He said leaders like Gadkari, who have done politics of development, would remain popular even if they go out of power. as they use their power for positive causes.
Under Fadnavis, Maharashtra BJP inducted politicians from the Congress and the NCP by pressuring them using government agencies, Dhangekar said. “People are watching everything, and they understand everything. There’s an end to all these things,” he said.
Dhangekar trounced the BJP candidate Hemant Rasne by over 10,800 votes in the recently held Kasba Peth bypoll. He was the Opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) candidate. The seat fell vacant last year after the death of BJP MLA Mukta Tilak.
