Devendra Fadnavis should quit: Raj Thackeray

MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Monday demanded the resignation of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on the ground that he had voted in favour of a separate Vidarbha state. Mr Thackeray said that in an unofficial referendum held in 2013 Mr Fadnavis had voted in favour of a separate statehood for Vidarbha and questioned how such a person could remain the chief minister of Maharashtra.

“Mr Fadnavis has supported separate Vidarbha and mentioned so in his Facebook post of 2013. A person who espouses the cause of splitting Maharashtra, while simultaneously being its CM, has no right to continue in that post and should quit,” the MNS chief said.

Mr Thackeray also accused the RSS along with the BJP for supporting the movement for separate Vidarbha. He claimed that former advocate general Shrihari Aney, who vehemently supports a separate state of Vidarbha, has been propped up by BJP and RSS.

The BJP has dismissed the allegations made by the MNS chief and said that the CM has not done anything wrong.

Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said that the BJP’s policy is in favour of smaller states so that there can be faster and equitable development in all regions.

“When Mr Fadnavis was working in the party organisation, he took a stand according to the party’s policy. There was nothing wrong in it. When he became the CM, he has sincerely worked for the development of the whole of Maharashtra. He very well understands his responsibilities. He has not changed his stand and there was no mistake,” Mr Shelar said.

The BJP leader also said that Dr B.R. Ambedkar had also supported separate statehood for Vidarbha and asked the MNS chief whether he would also term Dr Ambedkar as ‘anti-Maharashtra’. “MNS should stop propaganda which is being pushed in an effort to regain its lost importance in politics,” he said.