CM Fadnavis snubs second-rung leaders

Mumbai: Snubbing second-rung leaders of the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said that the statement he and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had made about their parties’ alliance should be considered the last word on the matter.  

He was speaking at a press conference on the eve of the budget session. Last week, senior Sena leader and Cabinet minister Ramdas Kadam had said that the BJP had already given a commitment that both parties would share the chief minister's post for an equal duration. If the BJP is backtracking, the Sena should snap ties with it, Mr Kadam had said. Senior BJP leader and revenue minister Chandr-akant Patil had also said that whichever of the two parties would get the maximum MLAs elected would stake a claim to the chief minister’s post.

On the question of both parties sharing the chief minister’s post for 2.6 years each, Mr Fadnavis said, “Uddhavji and I have clearly spoken about this issue in the press conference. Whatever we have stated is authentic. After this, Ramdasji (Ramdas Kadam) or Dada (Chand-rakant Patil) have stated on record that if there is a dissimilarity in our statements, Uddhavji and my statement should be considered true.”      

Replying to a question about whether the Sena and BJP’s other allies were unhappy about not being taken into confidence when they were finalised their alliance, he said he has not been told that they were unhappy. After deciding the seats for the smaller alliance partners, the remaining seats will be divided 50-50 (between Sena and BJP). “I have personally discussed this issue with the alliance partners. We will certainly take care of them,” Mr Fadnavis said.

On the issue of attacks on Kashmiri students in the wake of the terror att-ack in Pulwama, the chief minister said that Kash-miri students are citizens of this country. "It is our responsibility to provide security to them. If anyone attacks Kashmiri students, action will be taken against them,” he stated.

Speaking about the Dh-angar and Muslim reservation issue, Mr Fadnavis said the opinion of the advocate general (AG) of the state had been sought over the recommendations of the report (of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences), which had been submitted to the state.