Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024:  The days of assembly elections in Maharashtra are getting closer. Before that, the round of attacks and counter-attacks between the ruling party and opposition leaders is going on. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis criticized the Congress' plan to bring a guarantee card before the elections. Fadnavis said that this experiment has failed in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. State Congress leaders have said that the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will release a guarantee card containing the party's election promises.

fadnavis's attack on guarantee card

Devendra Fadnavis said, "Rahul Gandhi's guarantee card did not help the Congress retain power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. He should also explain why the guarantee card is not being implemented in Telangana and Himachal Pradesh. It will fail here too." On the ruling BJP, Shiv Sena, NCP 'mahayuti' alliance's strategy to deal with rebels filing nominations against official candidates, Fadnavis said alliance leaders, including NCP chief Ajit Pawar, had held a meeting at Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's residence on the issue.

"Rebels will withdraw nominations by November 4" 

The BJP leader further said, "We have resolved all the issues and you will see that many rebels will withdraw their nominations by November 4." He said that they would discuss with the rebels and settle their grievances. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is November 4, while voting will be held on November 20. Fadnavis said, "The nomination papers submitted by the Mahayuti candidates have been accepted. We will start our campaign with full vigor from November 5."

What did Fadnavis say about Gopal Shetty? 

When asked about former MP Gopal Shetty, who is contesting as an independent from Borivali assembly constituency, Devendra Fadnavis said that Shetty is a loyal and honest party worker. He said, "We are trying to convince him to take him back." When asked if he would be willing to include NCP leader Nawab Malik in the next government if the Mahayuti retains power, Fadnavis said, "Our party will not even campaign for Malik, so there is no question of including him as a minister. Our party is going to campaign for the Shiv Sena candidate contesting against Malik." Nawab Malik is the official candidate of Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from Mankhurd-Shivajinagar in Mumbai.