Will Hit All Loose Balls Beyond Boundary, Says Devendra Fadnavis As Uddhav Govt Fights Turmoil

As he aims to “expose misdoings” of the ruling camp, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis has taken a not-so-sly dig at the crisis-hit Maharashtra government. To hit the point home, Fadnavis, who inaugurated a cricket tournament in Dadar on Thursday used several cricket puns as he shared a clipping titled “I have decided” in Marathi.

Fadnavis said with “too many loose balls coming his way these days, he has no option but to hit them beyond the boundary”. He further said playing cricket is fun and if one gets to bat, it is all the more so.

“I have decided, I will do pace bowling and will bowl googly and when I come to bat, I will also play shots. In the current circumstance, I am getting so many loose balls that I will have to hit them beyond the boundary,” he further said in Marathi.

Coming in the midst of a raging political turmoil that has engulfed the ruling alliance of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, Fadnavis’ statement is being read with deeper meanings.

Fadnavis, who has been leading the BJP’s attack against the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) led by former ally Uddhav Thackeray, has recently claimed the government did not act on an “incriminating” state intelligence department report containing audio intercepts of a “large scale corruption” in police transfers and postings.

This comes at a time when Home Minister Anil Deshmukh is facing serious allegations of corruption from senior police officer Param Bir Singh, who was removed from his post of Mumbai Commissioner of Police. Singh has alleged that Deshmukh had set a Rs 100-crore collection target for police every month and has moved the Bombay High Court seeking “immediate and unbiased” probe against Deshmukh.

The ruling camp has called Singh the “most important weapon” for the opposition right now as demand for Deshmukh’s resignation grows louder.

Fadnavis has also sought a probe into the reason behind the rapid surge in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra compared to the other states in the country. The BJP leader further claimed if the rise is due to increased testing, then there are other states that are conducting more per million tests than Maharashtra, adding the vaccination drive process was being carried out slowly.