Anil Deshmukh’s dig at Devendra Fadnavis triggers another uncle-nephew face-off, Ashish reminds him of 2014 polls setback

Anil’s dig at Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis triggered the latest flashpoint between the duo. On Wednesday, BJP Maharashtra president Chandrashekhar Bawankule asked party workers in Nagpur who they would like to see as the chief minister after the 2024 Assembly polls. The BJP workers reportedly unanimously vouched for incumbent Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) leader Anil took to X and said, “To become the chief minister, he Fadnavis) will have to first get elected in the Assembly polls. The people in your own party are waiting for polls.”

The statement with a subtle political message that a section within the BJP itself would ensure Fadnavis’s defeat irked Ashish, and he retaliated. “Devendra Fadnavis will win with a record margin. You (Anil Deshmukh) don’t have to worry about Fadnavis,” said Ashish.

“Uncle, you reflect on your future. Have you forgotten the 2014 Assembly polls? I defeated you in the Katol constituency. Had I contested against you in 2019, you would have met a similar fate. Now, wait and see what happens in the 2024 Assembly elections.”

The strongly worded statement from the nephew against the uncle has once again set the stage for a bitter political battle. A BJP political strategist said, “Anil Deshmukh’s statement against Fadnavis was unwarranted. He has provoked the BJP. The BJP will leave no stone unturned to ensure Fadnavis’s victory with record margin in his Nagpur South West constituency. Moreover, Fadnavis has been in the electoral fray since 1999. And in all successive polls, he won with a handsome margin.”

Interestingly, Ashish, who has come to defend Fadnavis, contested against the deputy chief minister in the 2019 polls as the Congress candidate. However, Fadnavis won with a margin of 49,344 votes on his home turf.

Son of former minister and former Congress state chief Ranjit Deshmukh, Ashish first joined the BJP before the 2014 Assembly elections. He contested against his uncle Anil from the Katol constituency and defeated him. In 2018, Ashish left the BJP to return to Congress.

In June 2023, Ashish joined the BJP after the Congress expelled him for his remarks against Rahul Gandhi. Some perceived the return of Ashish to the BJP ahead of the 2024 elections as a strategic plan to counter the NCP in the Katol seat. Fadnavis termed Ashish’s induction into the party “ghar wapsi”.

Ashish has played an active role in the BJP’s OBC Jagar Yatra in the Vidarbha region and the party believes it has found a solid voice to attack the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

Anil, who suffered defeat at the Katol seat only once in the 2014 after his first win in the1995 polls, was arrested by the ED in November 2021 in a money laundering case and was in judicial custody for over a year before the Bombay High Court granted him bail.

The BJPs’ Adhyatmik Aghadi’ (spiritual cell) chief Tushar Bhosale said, “We are hurt by Anil Deshmukh’s comment against Fadnavis. Look at his audacity to comment about Deputy CM. We want to remind Anil Deshmukh. Look, you are on bail. You are not absolved of corruption charges as yet.”