Maharashtra: ‘In politics, anything can happen,’ says CM Devendra Fadnavis after Sharad Pawar's rare RSS praise

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has reacted to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar's recent statement praising the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s victory in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

Fadnavis attributed Pawar's comment to the success of the RSS ideology in countering the ‘fake narrative created by the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the Lok Sabha elections. The RSS, the BJP’s ideological mentor, played a crucial role in bringing national forces together to fight against ‘anarchist forces’ in the Maharashtra elections, Fadnavis said.

“In the Maharashtra elections, we requested the RSS Vichar Pariwar that national forces need to come together against the anarchist forces. People from various sectors of the RSS Vichar Pariwar played their roles in their respective fields only to fight against anarchy. Due to this, we were able to end the fake narrative, and the results of the Assembly elections were different from the Lok Sabha,” Fadnavis said while attending the award ceremony held in memory of senior RSS leader Vilas Fadnavis in Nagpur.

In a recent meeting, Sharad Pawar said that the RSS has a committed worker base that shows unwavering loyalty to its ideology and does not deviate from its path, come what may.

Maharashtra Election

The Mahayuti scored a comeback in the Maharashtra assembly polls, with the BJP winning 132 seats in the 288-member assembly.

“The Maha Vikas Aghadi succeeded in creating a fake narrative in the Lok Sabha elections. Due to this, they got overconfident that they could come to power by instilling such a fake narrative,” Fadnavis stated.

Fadnavis also acknowledged Pawar's intelligence, saying that he must have studied how the RSS effectively countered the opposition's narrative. He even suggested Pawar's praise might be a strategic move to acknowledge the RSS's influence.

“Sharad Pawar Saheb is very smart; he must have studied how such a big atmosphere that we had created got punctured in a minute. So he must have realised that these people are not only doing politics but working in the national interest),” Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis cautioned against taking anything for granted in politics, saying, “Never say never” and “Anything can happen”.

“Sometimes we have to praise our competitors, so he might have done it. After the political developments that took place from 2019 to 2024 (in Maharashtra), I realised one thing: never say never. Never think that nothing will happen. Anything can happen; it doesn't mean that it should happen,” said the Maharashtra CM.

(With ANI inputs)