BJP Set For 'Unprecedented' Win In Maharashtra Polls: Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said looking at the huge support that his ‘Mahajanadesh Yatra’ is receiving, the BJP will have an “unprecedented” victory in the upcoming state Assembly polls. Fadnavis said so far, his yatra has covered over 3,000 km and reached out to over 100 constituencies (out of the total 288) in the state.

“Wherever we go, the yatra is being welcomed by people and getting a huge response. Looking at the people’s support, we are sure that we will get an unprecedented victory in the Assembly polls,” he told reporters here.

Fadnavis on Saturday visited several tehsils of Pune district as part of the third leg of his ‘Mahajanadesh Yatra’.

When asked about the huge hoardings put on routes of the yatra, he said if the party workers think that by putting up such banners they will get the ticket (for the upcoming polls), “it is not so”.

To a question on the issue of felling of trees in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony to make way for a Metro car shed, he said it is a fact that there are trees in the area, but it neither comes under bio-diversity nor is it a forest land.

“Japan is funding the project and they never do funding unless the project is sustainable,” he said.

He claimed the state has received maximum investment in the country and as far as direct employment is concerned, the state is on the first position.

The Mumbai civic body recently gave its nod to cut over 2,600 trees for setting up a Metro car shed in Aarey Colony, the sprawling green belt of Mumbai.

Environmentalists have been opposing the proposed tree felling. Several Bollywood personalities and politicians have also extended their support to the activists.

Fadnavis earlier started his mass contact programme from Amravati in Vidarbha on August 1.

He, however, suspended it on August 6 in view of rains wreaking havoc in parts of the state, even as the opposition charged him then with giving priority to his campaign.

He later resumed his yatra from August 21. In the first and second phases of his yatra, he covered areas in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions.