Devendra Fadnavis’ tweet on Delhi Metro ride sparks row in Maharashtra

A tweet by Maharashtra’s leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on his Delhi Metro ride – that took a dig at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray – has snowballed into a major political issue.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) dispensation has hit out at the senior BJP leader and former chief minister. On Wednesday, when Fadnavis was in New Delhi, he took a ride in the Delhi Metro and later tweeted: “I travelled in Delhi Metro today to go back to the airport and reached in a very short span (of time) as compared to travel by road! (I) don't know when I will be able to travel in Mumbai Metro 3 to the airport, looking at the things messed up by MVA on carshed issues.”

The ruling MVA and Opposition BJP are engaged in a war-of-words after the Thackeray-government scrapped the carshed project of Mumbai Metro Line 3 from the Aarey Colony and shifted to Kanjur Marg. The new site has landed in litigation – and the MVA is also scouting other sites.

Maharashtra Congress spokesperson and general secretary Sachin Sawant said that he was happy that Fadnavis appreciated the Delhi Metro that came up during the Congress tenure.

“The only Metro completed in Mumbai was also by Democratic Front government. Your government could not meet the 2019 deadline. The MVA with vast experience in governance will surely do what your government could not do. The Narendra Modi government should remove the hurdles created by it,” he said.

NCO chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase asked Fadnavis to help clear the obstacles created in the Mumbai Metro project by his party BJP at the Centre. “We want that these hurdles should be cleared, the state and Centre must jointly contribute to give a well-deserved metro project to the citizens of Mumbai,” urged Tapase.