Mumbai: After the controversy over Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena’s advertisement that was released on Tuesday, another ad has been published on Wednesday. The Shiv Sena-led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde raised eyebrows on Tuesday by putting out an advertisement citing a survey which showed that Shinde was the most popular choice for the state’s top political job rather than his deputy Devendra Fadnavis.
While the advertisment’s tagline was “Modi for India, Shinde for Maharashtra’, the Chief Minister later sought to downplay it, saying both he and BJP leader Fadnavis were “in people’s minds” and working together.
Today’s Rate
Tuesday 01 Oct. 2024
What is in today’s ad
In today’s ad, it is mentioned that Shiv Sena-BJP alliance is the first choice of the people. Yesterday CM-Shiv Sena claimed that Eknath Shinde is preferred for the state’s top job. Simultaneously, the election symbol of Shiv Sena has been shown in today’s advertisement after the election symbol of BJP. On one side there is a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and on the other side, there is also a picture of Balasaheb Thackeray of Shiv Sena. Devendra Fadnavis’s picture along with Eknath Shinde has also been published in today’s advertisement.
However, in today’s ad, the CM-led Shiv Sena has again committed a mistake. In the picture where the government is thanking the people, only Shiv Sena Ministers have found mention ignoring the BJP leaders.
When asked about the ad, Shinde told media persons, “Our government works under the guidance of the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is a double engine government.”
He also tried to play down the matter of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ missing photo. “Photo may be there or not but both of us are in people’s hearts and that is more important.”
Before the current CM joined hands with the BJP in June 2022, the slogan ‘Narendra in the Country, Devendra in the State’ was popular among the BJP followers. It is also not a secret that Fadnavis wasn’t happy about having to cede the CM post to Shinde last year.
The tagline of ‘Modi for India, Shinde for Maharashtra’ wouldn’t have gone down well with him.
What may have really ticked off Fadnavis and the BJP was the claim in the ad that more people wanted Shinde to return as CM in the next term than Fadnavis. The ad had cited a recent survey by Zee News-Matrize stating that 26.1% wished to see Shinde as CM in the next term, ahead of Fadnavis, who was preferred by 23.2% people.
