Saddened by Savadi's decision to join Cong, says CM Bommai
Bengaluru (PTI): Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said he was "saddened" by the decision of former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi to part ways with the BJP and join the Congress.
"...I'm feeling very sad, we shared a close bond. Sometimes such political situations arise," Bommai said. "He might have found his political future in the Congress. We will do our job in our party."
Rebelling against the BJP denying him the ticket from Athani in Belagavi district, Savadi on Wednesday announced his decision to resign from the primary membership of the party.
Sitting MLA Mahesh Kumathalli, who was backed by BJP's Belagavi strongman and former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, was given the ticket in Athani.
Savadi is a three-time MLA from Athani but lost in the 2018 elections to Kumathalli (then in the Congress).
Kumathalli was among the group of 17 defectors, including Jarkiholi, who helped the BJP bring down the Congress-JD(S) coalition and form its government under the leadership of B S Yediyurappa in 2019.
Savadi's decision to join the Congress came after a meeting with Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah and Congress general secretary and party in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala here on Friday.
"He has agreed to become a member of our (Congress) family of his own volition", Shivakumar, who was flanked by Savadi and Siddaramaiah, told reporters after the meeting.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
