The Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday called the issue of “illegal Bangladeshis” as a major issue against which the Maharashtra Government has taken up a drive.
That AI tool is being developed along with IIT-Bombay to identify “illegal Bangladeshis”.
Amidst a conference while opening up on the upcoming civic body polls in Maharashtra, he predicted that the
BJP-led Mahayuti will register a victory at 26-27 of the 29 on January 15, 2026.
When asked about the impact of these elections on the 2029 polls, he said the BJP has already proven itself to be the
Number 1 party, however, these elections will make
BJP a major pole in Maharashtra in 2029 and thereafter, politics will revolve around BJP.
On migrants, rising hate crimes in India
‘Raj Thackeray is biggest loser’
He further went on to add that the tone for this election has already been set and it’s for development, for change. It is development which has emerged as the poll plank. People are seeing what they can deliver,” giving a list of infrastructure projects going on in the State. About the alliance amid Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray, he said that Raj Thackeray will be the biggest loser in the alliance. “That is because he will not get anything out of being with Uddhav Thackeray. Raj Thackeray will end up benefitting Uddhav Thackeray, but Uddhav will not benefit Raj
Asked if the Thackeray cousins were fighting a battle for survival, he said, “Nobody can finish off a party. People give more sometimes, less sometimes. But if one doesn’t try to bounce back, will won’t succeed. They did not even put their prestige at stake.
Terming the alliance amid the NCP and opposition party NCP SP a local phenomenon, he said it will likely not be taken ahead thereafter. “But 2019 has taught me to not say anything firmly about this. As of now, it looks like a local phenomenon to him, he said, referring to the 2019 government formation by the
BJP-NCP, where the NCP walked out of the alliance soon thereafter.
When quizzed about the consolidation of the Marathi vote bank due to the reunification of Thackeray cousins, he said that Marathi vote bank was not a unified share anyway. “We have the Marathi voters. MNS does not make any difference. In 2014 and in 2024, we fought against Uddhav Thackeray. And yet, we got more votes. In 2014, 2019 and 2014, we got over 15 – 16 seats (in Mumbai in State legislature). We can’t get those many seats without the Marathi vote bank. Our concern is the floating Marathi voters. We will have to cap that,”Fadnavis further went on to add.
And that ‘Mumbai Mayor will be a Hindu, a Marathi’
Since the mayoral issue has taken centre stage for the BMC elections in Mumbai, he opened up over the formula as well as the mayoral criteria. While predicting that the Mahayuti will have a smooth win in Mumbai, he said that it won’t be necessary that the biggest party will get the mayoral position. The mayor will belong to Mahayuti, will be a Hindu and will be a Marathi. The issue of a Muslim mayor came up when Kripashankar Singh spoke about a Hindi mayor in Mira Bhayander. As per AIMIM,. the next day that a ‘burqewali’
(a burqa clad woman) will emerge as Mumbai’s mayor. Shiv Sena UBT, which had attacked the BJP over a Hindi mayor, refused to utter a single word against AIMIM. That is when they criticised them saying that a Khan will become Mumbai’s mayor if they come to power.
Fadnavis was quizzed on the poll combinations in Ambarnath and in Akot. In Akot, the BJP had joined hands with AIMIM, among others, to come to power in the local body. In Ambarnath, it fought against its ally Shiv Sena to try to keep it out of power. Ultimately, Shiv Sena trumped BJP with the help of NCP and wrestled power back from the BJP.
“In Akot, it is technical. We had entered into an alliance with NCP. The NCP, in a post-poll alliance, joined hands with others including AIMIM. When BJP realised it, they were served a show cause notice to their local leader and withdrew from there. In Ambarnath, the message which was going out was that the BJP was fighting against its own ally Shiv Sena. So when the Sena decided to form the local body there, I told Ravindra Chavan to let them go ahead. I also spoke with Eknath Shinde,” he said.
When asked about the weird political combinations in the State for these local body elections, where the Mahayuti components were seen fighting against each other, leading acerbic personal attacks against each other, he said it was decided that there will be no personal attacks. Terming Cabinet Minister Ganesh Naik’s personal attacks against Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as ‘wrong’, he said the decision was made by all the parties, but Ajit Pawar broke the rule in Pune.
News Edit KV Raman
