Nagpur: In the wake of MVA candidate winning Assembly bypoll in Kasba Peth, a stronghold of BJP, Congress leader and former MLA Dr. Ashish Deshmukh has targeted Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The results of the by-elections in Maharashtra are out on Thursday. BJP candidate Ashwini Jagtap won from Pimpri Chinchwad, while Ravindra Dhangekar of Congress won from Kasba.
The Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is an MLA from Nagpur South-West Assembly Constituency. In 2019 Dr. Ashish Deshmukh contested the election against Fadnavis. He was defeated. But now a lot of water has flown under the bridge. Kasba and Nagpur South-West constituencies are similar. Therefore, Dr. Deshmukh believes that the people will reject the BJP in the next Assembly elections.
“Kasba Peth of Pune city and South-West of Nagpur city have almost similar geographical, social and political conditions. Therefore, Congress will win here in the next election. I fought against Fadnavis in the 2019 elections. At that time, claims were being made that Fadnavis would be elected with more than 1 lakh votes. But he was elected only by 35,000 votes. Congress definitely reduced his vote share,” said Dr. Deshmukh.
Dr Deshmukh further said, “Then I had only 11 days to work in the South-West constituency. If the party orders for 2024, victory will be sure. Therefore, in the next election, Nagpur’s south-west constituency will not be without Kasba. In Zilla Parishad, Graduate Constituency or Teacher Constituency elections, Nagpur has been standing with Congress for some time now. The RSS has headquarters here and the Deputy Chief Minister is the South-West MLA. But the Congress hold is strong here,” he asserted.
He said that in the same manner as the Kasba was lost by the BJP, this constituency is also going to be lost. Kasba was also a stronghold of BJP. Almost all ministers including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, BJP State President Chandrashekhar Bawankule camped there. Yet there they had to taste defeat. They could not get victory there despite doing everything, Dr. Ashish Deshmukh said.
“Congress’s position in Maharashtra is unshakable and BJP is currently making one mistake after another. Therefore, there is no doubt that people will turn to Congress again. Be it me or someone else, we will elect the Congress candidates together,” declared Dr Deshmukh.
