‘Sharad Pawar is Chanakya, anything is possible in politics…’, why did Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis say this

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has taken a dig at (Nationalist Congress Party- Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar’s recent statement in which he praised the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Fadnavis said, ‘Sharad Pawar is Chanakya. He must have realized how the fake narrative propagated by the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 got punctured in the assembly elections. Sharad Pawar must have realized that this power (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is not going to do regular politics, it is a power that builds the nation. In the end, one has to praise one’s opponent as well. That is why he must have praised the RSS.’

Can Sharad Pawar’s party become a part of the NDA at the Center and the Mahayuti alliance in the state? In response to this question, Devendra Fadnavis said, ‘Let me tell you… you must have heard my statements after 2019. The events that have happened from 2019 to 2024 have made me understand that nothing is impossible. One should not assume that something will not happen. Anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray can go there, Ajit Pawar can come here. Anything can happen in politics. It should be kept in mind that when we say with conviction that this will not happen, then there is no guarantee as to where the political circumstances will take you.’

Devendra Fadnavis had arrived in Nagpur to attend the award ceremony organized in the memory of senior RSS leader Vilas Fadnavis. During his address at the event, he said, ‘RSS played an important role in bringing together national forces to fight against anarchist forces in the Maharashtra elections.’ He said, ‘In the Maharashtra elections, we had requested the RSS Vichar Parivar that national forces need to come together against anarchist forces. People from different areas of the RSS Vichar Parivar played roles in their respective areas to fight against anarchy.’

Devendra Fadnavis said, ‘In the Lok Sabha elections, the Mahavikas Aghadi was successful in a fake narrative. This made them overconfident that they could come to power by creating such fake narratives. All of us, including me, were overconfident in the Lok Sabha elections. We thought we were winning. So we thought that the opposition’s talk of changing the Constitution etc. would have no effect on the public. We thought that vote jihad would have no effect, but unfortunately we saw its effect.’