Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | 'Not in good taste': Maha Yuti divided over Yogi Adityanath's 'Batenge to katenge' slogan

Mumbai: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP’s star campaigner’s ‘Batenge to katenge’ narrative snowballed into a major controversy in Maharashtra with the ruling Maha Yuti and even a section of BJP divided over the issue even as the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi slammed the saffron party for trying to divide the society.

At least three BJP leaders - Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and BJP MLC Pankaja Munde seem to differ from Adityanath.

While Chief Minister Eknath Shinde felt that the statement of his UP counterpart is “misinterpreted”, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said that such ideas are not welcomed in the state.

“Maharashtra follows the ideology of Shiv-Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar. People are committed to it. Recently, someone said that 'Batenge to katenge'. We will not tolerate this type of slogans. This might be working there but these things will not work in Maharashtra,” said Ajit Pawar, who is the NCP President.

Politically, Ajit Pawar’s NCP has a Muslim vote bank and even has several Musilm candidates and it is believed that such statements from leader of the ally would impact the votes.

“Frankly, my politics is different. I won’t support it just because I belong to the same party. My belief is that we should work on development alone. A leader’s job is to make every living person on this land their own. Therefore, we need not bring any such topic to Maharashtra,” Munde said in an interview to a daily.

"There is no relevance of this… slogans are given at election time. This particular slogan is not in good taste and I don't think people will appreciate it. Personally speaking, I am not in favour of such slogans," said Chavan, a Rajya Sabha MP.

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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