Lies have short life, Cong's 'fake' narrative smashed: Fadnavis

Nagpur: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday targeted the opposition Congress, saying its “fake” narrative on the Constitution has burst and asserted that lies do not last long.

In response to a question, Fadnavis said if the ruling Mahayuti — comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s NCP — gets re-elected, its constituents will sit together to decide who will be the CM.

The BJP leader began his campaign for the November 20 state polls from his Nagpur South-West assembly constituency.

Fadnavis, who was the chief minister of the state from 2014 to 2019 and for a short tenure of 80 hours in November 2019, has successfully contested the assembly polls for five times from Nagpur.

This is his sixth assembly election. He has been an MLA for the past 25 years starting 1999.

Speaking to reporters during the campaign, Fadnavis said the people have elected him five times and will support his candidature for the sixth term as well.

“My constituency is my family and my family have love for me. The people will certainly elect me,” he said.

Notably, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is slated to hold ‘Samvidhan Samman Sammelan’ in Nagpur on Wednesday.

Asked whether the opposition party is trying create a narrative again with the event, Fadnavis said “lies have a short life”.

Their “fake” narrative has burst. Now they again want to stage a “drama” which would not get any response, he said targeting the opposition.

“The people very well know that it was (Prime Minister) Modi ji who showed the courage to implement the Constitution in Jammu & Kashmir and across India. The Congress never let the Constitution get implemented in Jammu and Kashmir,” Fadnavis said.

To a query on BJP workers keen on seeing him as the chief minister of Maharashtra if the ruling Mahayuti retains power, Fadnavis said it is natural for the workers to feel like this as they want their leader to become big.

“But, we all know that we are running the government in Maharashtra under the leadership of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. When our alliance is elected, we all will sit together and decide on who will be the chief minister,” the BJP leader said.

Fadnavis expressed confidence that the Mahayuti will retain power in the state with full majority.

The deputy CM led a huge rally comprising BJP workers from the Hingna T-point petrol pump to Chhatrapati Sabhagruh here to reach out to voters in his constituency.