'Vote Jihad In 14 Out Of 48 Constituencies': Fadnavis On BJP's Poor Show During Lok Sabha Polls In Maharashtra

Ahead of the assembly elections in Maharashtra, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis blamed “vote jihad” for the BJP’s poor show in the state during the recently held Lok Sabha polls.

Explaining himself, Fadnavis said people from a “particular community” cast a united vote to defeat “Hindutvawadi” candidates in at least 14 out of 48 constituencies in Maharashtra. He said “some people” think that they can “bring down Hindutva” by organising themselves.

“‘Vote jihad’ was seen in 14 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. People from a particular community voted unitedly to defeat the Hindutvawadi candidates,” he said.

At the CNN-News18 Town Hall a few days ago, he had expressed similar sentiments during an interaction about the upcoming assembly elections. He had blamed “fake narratives” and “vote jihad” for the BJP’s poor Lok Sabha performance and said this will not be the case in the polls ahead. The saffron party was better prepared and has fixed its issues, while the “ground reality is different” now, he had said.

“The fake narrative of the changing of the Constitution and reservation percolated. We saw a ‘vote jihad’ in Maharashtra. In Dhule Lok Sabha seat, in five of the six assembly seats, we were ahead by 1.9 lakh votes. In Malegaon Madhya, we lost by 1,94,000, a gap of 4,000 votes. There was a revengeful voting. Fear was being put in the minds of the minorities. We undermined it. We did not think they would come together and vote. We have fixed it now. Today the situation on ground is different. Even minorities know that polarisation was done. People are seeing our schemes. In Mumbai, look at the Metro, coastal road or Atal Setu or even in rural areas… The narrative is in our favour,” he had said.

On Tuesday, the deputy chief minister repeated the examples of Dhule and Malegaon. He said the BJP candidate was leading by 1.90 lakh votes in at least five assembly segments in Dhule during the Lok Sabha elections. But, at the same time, the other candidate from Malegaon won by a 4,000-vote margin and got a total of 1.94 lakh votes, he added.

“The confidence of people from the other community has grown and they have started believing that they can defeat Hindutvawadis even with fewer numbers. Some people feel that by organising themselves, they can bring down Hindutva,” he said.

He further spoke about the purported rise of “love jihad” in the state, and said such cases were rarely heard of 10 years ago. “…when people used to talk about ‘love jihad’, we used to think that it was a single incident, but today it seems that it is a deliberate conspiracy. There are more than one lakh complaints out there. They hide behind marriage, but this is ‘love jihad’…” he said.