Thane: CM Devendra Fadnavis and deputy CM Eknath Shinde on Sunday accused the opposition INDIA bloc of stoking unrest in the country and undermining constitutional institutions.Fadnavis claimed the opposition’s fight was no longer against BJP but against the country and its progress. He accused Congress of merely repackaging its old political agenda. “Their battle is not against BJP, NDA or PM Modi, but against our country. They want to create anarchy, undermine the Constitution and defame our institutions, with the larger intention of bringing a communist and leftist regime on the lines of that in China,” he said at a BJP-sponsored ‘Loktantra Bachao Padyatra’ in Thane.Fadnavis alleged that the opposition’s campaign against the special intensive revision of poll rolls stemmed from the removal of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators from voter lists.Shinde turned the opposition’s vote theft charge against it, citing the political developments following the 2019 assembly elections. “The real vote chori happened when they (Uddhav Thackeray) backstabbed their natural ally, BJP, and joined hands with Congress for power.”Questioning the opposition’s allegations of EVM misuse, Shinde asked whether its MPs elected through the same system would resign and if it would quit office in states where it had won.He also criticised the INDIA bloc for taking out a protest march to Supreme Court last month, alleging it to be an attempt to pressure constitutional institutions. “Its mindset is ‘either you rule the country or you destroy it’. But we will not tolerate this,” said the Shiv Sena chief, attributing the opposition’s hostility towards Modi to his global stature and popularity.Recalling the Emergency, he questioned Congress’s moral authority to speak on democracy.Shinde’s presence on a BJP platform drew political attention amid the recent public sparring between netas of the two Mahayuti allies following their performances in the MLC elections.
