VIJAYAPURA: Responding to speculations on the possible change of guard in Maharashtra, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has categorically said that Eknath Shinde will remain as Chief Minister of Maharashtra until the government completes its term.
“Let me make it very clear that Eknath Shinde will remain CM until the next assembly election and later we will fight the polls under his leadership in Maharashtra and win,” he announced.
Addressing the media before heading to the Babaleshwar assembly constituency to campaign for the BJP candidate in Vijayapura on Wednesday, he said that whatever is being said about the possible change of guard in Maharashtra is only a media creation.
Asked why the Maharashtra government often rakes up the boundary issue even as the Mahajan Commission declared that Belagavi should remain as a part of Karnataka, Fadnavi refused to reply, stating that the matter is before the Apex Court.
On the allegations of the Maharashtra government deliberately implementing its health guarantee scheme in 865 border villages of Karnataka in order to stake its claim on them, he said that the BJP government has not issued any new order with regard to the said scheme.
“ We have made it amply clear that the order related to implementing the health scheme was done during the previous Congress government and not by our government. We have also shown relevant documents in this regard”, he said.
On the allegations of the Kannadigas living in bordering villages of Karnataka that the Maharashtra government is being biased with them, Fadnavi refuted the allegations, stating that the government is giving the required facilities.
Earlier, he defended Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s government’s decision to scrap the 4 per cent reservation given to the Muslims.
He said that since the Constitution does not allow reservation on the bases of religion, the BJP government has removed to correct the mistake committed by the Congress government.
“The Supreme Court has struck down the efforts of any State government which tried to give reservation to Muslims. Therefore whatever is done by the BJP government is correct,” he said and exuded confidence of winning the case as the matter has now gone to the Supreme Court.
