Politicians must not hate any community while ensuring welfare of their own: Fadnavis
Devendra Fadnavis
on Monday inaugurated the statue of
Gopinath Munde
at Latur. He emphasised that the late
BJP
politician should be honoured as an exemplary figure for fostering communal harmony while advancing the welfare of his own community.
"He (Munde) was known as the leader of the OBC community, but members of other communities equally liked him," Fadnavis said, indirectly addressing the political polarisation in Maharashtra over Maratha reservation.
Reflecting on Munde's legacy, Fadnavis revealed the BJP leadership had intended to appoint the late politician as chief minister of Maharashtra following the 2014 assembly elections. "There was a popular slogan at that time projecting Narendra Modi as the PM and me as the CM.
Despite that, we told Modiji that we are lending you Mundeji for a brief period in Lok Sabha as he (Munde) was slated to come back to become the CM of Maharashtra," Fadnavis said, adding that Munde's untimely demise altered these plans.
Amit Shah, then the BJP president, made a similar statement during a public rally at Chaundi in Ahilyanagar district in Sept 2014. Recalling Munde's role in expanding BJP's presence in Maharashtra during its early years, Fadnavis noted that the late politician left a lasting impact.
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"As the home minister of Maharashtra, Munde must be credited for making Mumbai and the state free from the clutches of the underworld," he added.
In her address, BJP minister Pankaja Munde, Gopinath Munde's daughter, said: "Many of my supporters complain that my style of working is different from that of my father. I always tell them that I am not working as per his style but in a manner that my father expected me to work."
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