Mahajanadesh Yatra in Nanded: Fadnavis holds rally at Chavan home turf, takes a dig at ex-CM

Considered to be the stronghold of the Chavan family, Chavan had lost the Lok Sabha seat to Prataprao Chikhalikar of the BJP earlier this year.

As a sign of changing times, local Congress and NCP leaders, along with their followers, participated in the CM’s yatra. Nanded’s former NCP president and former MLA Bapusaheb Deshmukh Gothekar officially joined the BJP at the rally.

A close aide of Chavan, requesting anonymity, said, “In 2014, despite the Modi wave, Chavan had won. But 2019, he lost because of infighting in the Congress. A sizeable section of Congress loyalists, who once with the Chavans, defected to the BJP or worked against him.”

While conceding that Assembly polls were going to be a litmus test for Chavan, the aide said,

“The Congress will have to go extra mile. The local bond that the Chavan family once enjoyed with the people of Nanded is breaking with the generation next no longer sharing similar sentiments.”