As it launched the joint campaign for the bye-elections to the two seats in Pune, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi hit out at the "traitor MLAs" - who toppled their government in Maharashtra with the help of BJP - asserting that the time has come to take them to task.
Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar of NCP, state Congress President and former Assembly Speaker Nana Patole and Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray shared the dais in Pune and hit out at the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis dispensation.
The attack comes on the eve of the hearing before the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court - which has a bunch of petitions before it on the issue of disqualification of the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs including Shinde.
The two seats that are going to polls are - Kasba Peth and Chinchwad.
In Kasba Peth, there is a direct fight between Hemant Rasane (BJP) and Ravindra Dhangekar (Congress), while in Chinchwad there is going to be a triangular contest involving Ashwini Jagtap (BJP), Nana Kate (NCP) and Rahul Kalate, a rebel of the Shiv Sena.
Over the next couple of weeks, the top MVA leadership will go to Pune and campaign for its candidates.
“The MVA’s good work has been halted by the traitors…they should be taught a lesson,” said Pawar and described the bye-elections as very important for the MVA. “By winning these two seats, we have to show everybody that the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray was doing good work before traitors put a halt to it. The time has come to teach them a lesson,” he said.
Aaditya, in his speech, described Shinde as “unconstitutional Chief Minister”. “These people are ‘gaddar’…the 40 MLAs and 13 MPs (who are led by Shinde)…has any of them denied that they have not touched ‘khoke’ (boxes),” he said.
Patole said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi defamed Maharashtra in the Parliament by falsely alleging that Maharashtra had spread Covid-19 pandemic in the country. “The BJP government was asleep during the pandemic, while the MVA government provided support and help to the people. By using its Governors, ministers, the BJP has continuously defamed the state and the great men of Maharashtra,” he said.