Pune: Crowds are like oxygen for politicians on the campaign trail and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was found gasping when empty chairs greeted him at a public rally here, forcing him to cancel it.
Mr Fadnavis was scheduled to address an election rally at the New English School compound on Tilak Road here as part of the last phase of campaigning for Pune Municipal Corporation polls voting for which will take place on February 21. When Mr Fadnavis reached the venue of the public meeting at the appointed hour at 2 pm, he found very few people present and most chairs empty.
The Chief Minister waited in vain for some time for people to gather at the rally and then left without addressing the rally. Mr Fadnavis, who is spearheading BJP’s campaign in the local bodies elections in Maharashtra, left for adjoining Pimpri Chinchwad where he was scheduled to address another election meeting.
“I have cancelled my public meeting at Pune due to miscommunication of time of rally. I regret for the same. Heading towards Pimpri Chinchwad,” Mr Fadnavis later confirmed on Twitter.
BJP withdraws ‘made for each other’ poll ad
BJP has withdrawn a TV ad, made as part of the party’s campaign for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, after criticism in social media. “The ad ‘Mumbai and BJP: Made for each other has been withdrawn after considering public sentiments,” Maharashtra BJP’s chief spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said on Saturday.
The ad, which featured college friends, ended with a youth telling his friend that they were ‘made for each other, just like BJP is made for Mumbai’. To this, she replies, “Chal (let’s go).”
There was a volley of negative comments across social media about the ‘punch line’ of the ad, following which the party decided to pull it out of circulation.
Meanwhile, posters featuring CM Devendra Fadnavis and declaring ha shabda maza ahe (this is my word) have been put up all over the city to counter Sena posters, which claim credit for work done by the civic body, ahead of the February 21 BMC election. The BJP posters have the tagline as parivartan tar honarach (change will happen) denoting its resolve to dethrone the Sena in the BMC.
