On Sunday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis kick started the election campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the Lok Sabha election from Kolhapur. The rally was jointly organized by BJP and Shiv Sena. Big leaders of the state including Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray and Republican Party of India President Ramdas Athawale along with former CM of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan attended the rally.
Earlier visuals of large crowds at BJP-Shiv Sena rally in Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Maharashtra CM and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray addressed the public rally. pic.twitter.com/q77hmHrSwd
— ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2019
While addressing the rally, CM Fadnavis took a dig at the remark of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jayant Patil. In his statement, Jayant termed BJP as an event management company, on which, Fadnavis said, “The Congress-NCP alliance is nothing, but a corruption management company. We will neither indulge in corruption nor let anyone support it.”
The rally marked the strength of the BJP and Shiv Sena in the state. However, the most prominent aspect of the rally was the transformation of Devendra Fadnavis. 5 years ago, he was an underdog and was unknown to Maharashtra politics; but today Fadnavis is a mass leader and the whole state is with him. When Fadnavis took over as the CM of the state, the party leadership had given him veto power and Fadnavis has proven time and again that he is worthy of having been promoted for the prominent position!
https://twitter.com/anuraag_saxena/status/1109876794729988096
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is one of the youngest politicians in the country and represents the aspirations of young India. His advocacy for business-friendly economic policies is in sync with young Indian economic thought. His push for infrastructure development is the need of the hour for cities like Mumbai. Since decades, Mumbai was neglected by politicians of Maharashtra because it was not the main voter base for parties like Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). These parties used Mumbai as their milking cow as the city accounts for a significant amount of tax for central as well as state government. The government used most of the public money in the areas of western Maharashtra, the area from which most of the powerful politicians of the state come.
On the very day of forming the government Fadnavis made it very clear that he will pursue business-friendly policies for economic growth of the state. He aims to make the state 1 trillion dollar economy by 2025. The state wants to move from agriculture to services for high economic growth. Fadnavis wants to make Mumbai a fin-tech hub of Asia because its time zone is suitable for that.
The other high tech sector which Maharashtra wants to lead is defense and aerospace industry. The government approved a defense and aerospace production policy, aiming to attract $2 billion investment in five years and create 1 lakh jobs.
The government also worked hard to bring FDI in the state and this resulted in a threefold increase in the total foreign investment in 2017 in comparison to 2014. Foxconn the Taiwan based MNC which manufactures gadgets for world’s leading electronics brands, including Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, BlackBerry and Motorola had made an investment of 5 billion in the state. The investment for hardware manufacturing will integrate the whole IT industry which is the crown jewel of the Indian economy.
Since coming to power, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has set a wonderful precedent, whether it be on the economic front or with regard to the accountability of the government. For the people, Fadnavis is a true maverick.