Maharashtra Congress Chief Calls Fadnavis ‘Compulsive Liar’
“Mr. Fadnavis had said he’d never ally with Ajit Pawar and had declared Chhagan Bhujbal should be in jail": Harshwardhan Sapkal
Mumbai: Calling Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis a “compulsive liar”, Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal on Sunday said all leaders, who faced allegations from Mr. Fadnavis, are in his cabinet today. Mr. Fadnavis is an expert in giving clean chits, he said.
The Congress leader’s remark came in a response to the CM’s counter to Rahul Gandhi’s claims on the fairness of Maharashtra Assembly election held last year. Hitting back at Mr. Gandhi over his allegations of election rigging in Maharashtra, Mr. Fadnavis said the people have rejected the Congress leader and in retaliation, he is rejecting the people and their mandate. “The Congress leader is following a policy that if you cannot convince people, then confuse them. Mr Gandhi is preparing excuses for the defeat in state Assembly elections in Bihar,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
Maharashtra Congress leadership including Congress’s Maharashtra in charge Ramesh Chennithala, state president Harshwardhan Sapkal and former state president Nana Patole held separate press conferences in their regions to give a rebuttal to the BJP leader.
Mr Sapkal said that the BJP leader’s counter is superficial and laughable. Taking a dig at Mr Fadnavis, he alleged that Mr. Fadnavis is a compulsive liar. “Mr. Fadnavis had said he’d never ally with Ajit Pawar and had declared Chhagan Bhujbal should be in jail. He accused Narayan Rane of massive corruption. Yet today, he sits beside all of them. He is an expert in handing out clean chits to corrupt ministers, and now he has given one to the Election Commission of India (ECI) as well,” Mr. Sapkal said.
The state congress chief also demanded a narco test of Maharashtra’s Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam and the then Additional CEO Kiran Kulkarni to expose the truth behind the “vote theft” in the assembly elections.
Mr Chennithala said that since Rahul Gandhi logically exposed how the Maharashtra Assembly election was marred by fraud, manipulation, and a systematic violation of the people’s mandate amounting to a brutal assault on democracy. Given the deepening doubts about the conduct of the election body, it is the ECI that must respond to these serious questions. “Instead, BJP leaders are replying on behalf of the ECI, which is even more concerning. This only confirms that match-fixing did take place in this election,” he claimed.