‘Don’t touch Fadnavis, or we back out’, says group of Independent Maharashtra Legislators

Mumbai, July 26: Amidst speculation on the fate of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a group of six Independent legislators on Thursday came out solidly in his support, warning the Bharatiya Janata Party against a leadership change in the state.

“In case the BJP decides to remove Fadnavis, we shall withdraw support to the state government,” the leader of the Independent legislators' group Ravi Rana told media persons here.

On Wednesday, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut created a flutter by claiming that the BJP top leadership was contemplating replacing Fadnavis in the wake of the violent Maratha quota stir which rocked the state since the past three days.

However, several senior state BJP leaders and ministers promptly dismissed Raut’s contentions as “rumor-mongering” even as the government came under severe fire from its ally Shiv Sena, the opposition Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for its failure to tackle the Maratha reservations issue. (IANS)