Ananth Hegde claims Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra CM to 'protect 40,000 cr'; BJP leader rebuts

Hegde, while campaigning for his party in Yallapor in his Uttara Kannada constituency for the upcoming bypolls, on Saturday said as quoted by NDTV, "You all know that recently in Maharashtra for just 80 hours our person was Chief Minister, but soon Fadnavis resigned.

Why did we have to do this drama? Didn't we know? Despite knowing we don't have a majority, why did he become Chief Minister? This is the question everyone asks."

"If the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena came to power, certainly that Rs 40,000 crore would not have gone for development and would have been (misused)," the BJP MP claimed. 

However Fadnavis, who remained the Chief Minister for one of the shortest period of time, rebutted the claim saying, "The claim is completely untrue. I seriously reject such claims. Such type of transfer of money does not take place. I have not taken any policy decision being the Chief Minister (for 80 hours)."

Fadnavis controversially was sworn in as the Chief Minister at 7:50 am by Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari with the support of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Ajit Pawar who had promised to BJP leader to bring enough lawmakers to help the saffron party attain majority in the assembly.

However, NCP chief Sharad Pawar kept his flock together leading to the resignation of Ajit, who was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister.

Being unable to cobble up the required number, egg-faced Fadnavis had no option but to resign enabling the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance to assume power.

(Image Credit: Devendra Fadnavis Twitter)