No sooner had chief minister Devendra Fadnavis assured the delegation of tenants associations on Thursday that the government would not make any amendments to the Rent Act and that it woudl stand by the tenants, than allies and opposition parties like the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Part and even some BJP legislators race to claim it as victory for Mumbaikars.
As BJP MLAs Mangal Prabhat Lodha and Raj K. Purohit raced to claim credit for the development, it was left to state BJP president Raosaheb Danve to clarify that the CM has assured that the government has no plans to make any changes in the Rent Act. Both Mr Lodha and Mr Purohit on Thursday tried to strongly argue that much before the other political parties raked up the issue, they had called upon the CM to look into the matter.
The duo accused the other rival political parties of creating needless fear amongst the tenants. While Mr Purohit claimed there was no such proposal before the government to hike the rents, Mr Lodha said the government had rejected the proposal to hike the rents in May 2015.
Mumbai NCP president Sachin Ahir said in a statement that it was NCP that first launched the agitation and forced the government to retract.
Congress leader of opposition in legislative assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, meanwhile wanted to know whether the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance was running a government or indulging in “child’s play”.
