Mahayuti's unprecedented win in Maharashtra a fitting tribute to Vajpayee: CM Fadnavis

Nagpur: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the Mahayuti alliance's unprecedented success in the state assembly polls was a fitting tribute to former prime minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birth centenary.

Speaking during an event in the city, where he was publicly felicitated at the hands of Union minister Nitin Gadkari, Fadnavis also said that power has not gone to his head as he knows that he was nothing without the BJP.

In the November 20 assembly polls, the ruling Mahayuti retained power in the state with the BJP winning 132 seats, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena 57 and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Ajit Pawar 41 seats.

Fadnavis, who took oath as the chief minister for the third time earlier this month, said, "BJP on its own bagged 132 seats and the Mahayuti alliance won 237 of the 288 seats in the assembly polls. In the centenary year of RSS and the birth centenary of Vajpayeeji, there can be no other fitting tribute than this." Strength and perseverance of BJP workers helped the party win, he said.

"I joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) when I was in grade 11, and started studying law. After returning from 'kar seva' in Uttar Pradesh, I was asked to work for BJP. In 1992, I contested the civic polls and my political life started," Fadnavis said.

"Power has never gone to my head. I knew from the beginning that without BJP, I hold no meaning...BJP and its workers mean everything to me," he said.

After the Lok Sabha polls, we were down but not out, Fadnavis said, adding that party workers worked hard.

The 'Ek hain to safe hain' (united we are safe) slogan worked wonders and the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and women united and gave us a mandate, he said.

This huge mandate has also given more responsibility, the CM said.

On the occasion, Gadkari said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Sab ka saath, sabka ka vikas' (together for everyone's development) is the real meaning of secularism.

"Vajpayee always said India is secular because of its Hindus, because of the community's all inclusiveness, patience, legacy and history. Rana Pratap, Shivaji Maharaj never demolished mosques to build temples," he said.