BJP president Amit Shah, who concluded his two-day Mumbai visit Friday morning, has warned the state party leaders against working at cross-purposes and told them that decisions taken by state unit chief Devendra Fadnavis should be considered final.
At the closed-door meeting held with top state leaders late Thursday night, Shah minced no words. ?Let it be known to all that decisions taken by state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis will be final. Nobody should work at cross-purposes or make any attempt to contradict.?
Shah?s message is being seen as an attempt to quell factionalism in the state BJP unit in which leaders like Opposition leader in the state Assembly Eknath Khadse, Opposition leader in Legislative Council Vinod Tawde and others have been engaged in one-upmanship.
A senior BJP leader, who was part of the meeting addressed by Shah, told The Indian Express, ?Shah said that first of all, we should learn to work together and set the BJP house in order. He also said that individuals should not try to get into the game of one-upmanship and undermine the authority of the state president who is appointed by the party.?
Shah also said that issues related to the alliance with the Shiv Sena would matter only when the state BJP leaders projected a united face. ?Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keenly watching the developments in the poll-bound Maharashtra. There cannot be any excuse when it comes to delivering results in the Assembly elections,? he told BJP leaders.
Highly placed sources said that Khadse had made a public statement last week that the next chief minister should be from north Maharashtra, the region he comes from, which was construed as an attempt at self-promotion.
Sources close to Khadse defended him. ?Whats wrong? He is the senior-most leader in the party and has ensured maximum results from north Maharashtra since 1991,? they said.
Earlier, Fadnavis? decision to give a go-ahead to ?sangharsh yatra? of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde?s MLA daughter Pankaja Munde Palwe had also invited resistance from a section within the BJP. However, Shah has appreciated the initiative is likely to be present when it concludes at Choundi in district Ahmednagar on September 18.
Pankaja?s ?sangharsh yatra? across 71 constituencies across Maharashtra was planned in two phases.
The first phase was between August 27 and September 2.
The second phase will start on September 11 and end on September 18.