Karnataka BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde on Monday claimed that Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister so that he could save Rs 40,000 crores of exchequer money which otherwise would have been ‘misused’ by the NCP-Shiv Sena-Congress coalition.
A video of his speech, made while he was campaigning for BJP candidate Shivam Hebbar ahead of the Karnataka bye-polls, has gone viral. Hegde was explaining why Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the Chief Minister in Maharashtra even though he did not have the numbers in the Assembly.
“The Chief Minister has access to around Rs 40 thousand crores. If Congress and NCP and Shiv Sena came to power, they would have misused the 40 thousand crores. It's all central government money and it wouldn't have been used for development. This was all planned much before. So it was decided that there should be a natak (drama). So Fadnavis took oath as Chief Minister. Immediately, in 15 hours, he moved all the Rs 40 thousand crores to wherever it belonged. Fadnavis saved all the money. All the money was given back to the central government,” Hegde is heard saying.
@AnantkumarH says that Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra CM despite knowing that he did not have the numbers, to save the Rs 40k Cr from the Cong-NCP-Sena alliance. @thenewsminute pic.twitter.com/JSzydkZnd5
— Theja Ram (@thejaram92) December 2, 2019
However, Devendra Fadnavis has countered Hegde's remark and denied that he made such a decision. “No such major policy decision has been taken by me as the Chief Minister. All such allegations are false,” Fadnavis told the media on Monday.
Not a single penny from Maharashtra got transferred to GoI.
— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) December 2, 2019
महाराष्ट्राचा एकही रुपया केंद्राला गेला नाही.
केंद्र सरकारने तो मागण्याचा प्रश्नच निर्माण होत नाही!
शेतकऱ्यांना देण्यात आलेली मदत वगळता जाणीवपूर्वक कोणताही धोरणात्मक निर्णय त्या काळात घेतला नाही!https://t.co/XqI7f4xMRi pic.twitter.com/weteWoGtOz
In a surprising turn of events, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra early on November 21, just hours after the NCP-Shiv Sena-Congress alliance, the Maha Vikas Aghadi, had announced that Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena, would be the Chief Minister.
The alliance had them moved Supreme Court against the swearing-in and the Supreme Court ordered that a floor test be conducted by 5 pm on November 26 so that Fadnavis can prove majority on the floor of the House. However, hours after the SC’s decision, Fadnavis, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on Saturday, and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, who was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister, resigned from their posts. On November 28, Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray took oath as Chief Minister of Maharashtra as part of the NCP-Shiv Sena-Congress coalition and won the floor test a day later.