Fadnavis woos north Indians ahead of high-stakes BMC polls

Mumbai, Sep 2 (PTI) Reaching out to North Indiansahead of the BMC polls next year, Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis today said people from that region and other parts ofthe country, who reside in the state have not only imbibedMaharashtra’s culture, but have also enriched it. "Whenever a north Indian asks me where his place wasin the state, I reply to him with a song – ‘Najar ke samne,jigar ke pass koi rahta hai wo tum’…," Fadnavis said to around of applause. The Chief Minister, who started off his speech inBhojpuri, said, "Maharashtra shares a very old and lastingbond with the Uttar Pradesh and this is the reason Maharashtrahas always given due respect to all the North Indians, as ithas given to the people belonging to rest of the country." Fadnavi was speaking at ‘Baati-Chokha’, a publicdinner programme with traditional north Indian menu, organisedby BJP at suburban Goregaon. "Uttar Pradesh is the land of Lord Ram and Krishna.Wherever Lord Ram visited in the Maharashtra during his exile,it became places of worship and we all have maintained ourimmense respect and faith to those places," he said. Not only this, centuries ago at the time of ShivajiMaharaj’s coronation, a brahmin from Uttar Pradesh was calledin and he completed all the rituals, he added. "People coming in from all the states, including UP,have not only adopted Maharashtra’s culture, but also enrichedit," he said. Taking potshots at Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav, Fadnavis said, "Those who made tall promisesabout transforming Uttar Pradesh into ‘Uttam Pradesh’ havemiserably failed to do so. But now it would be done only underthe able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji." The BJP’s event is being seen as an aggressive way towoo ‘Uttar Bhartiyas’ as they form 28 per cent vote share inMumbai. The outreach has another objective with forthcomingAssembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, due next year. BMC has been ruled by Shiv Sena, which plays itsagenda of ‘sons-of-soil’ vs ‘outsiders’, with the BJP as ajunior partner for over two decades. Baati-Chokha is a traditional north Indian dish. While’baati’ consists of wheat and sattu (powdered roastedblackgrams) formed into balls with spices, and then dipped inghee (clarified butter) ‘chokha’ is a dip prepared by mashingboiled potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant together with somespices. City BJP chief Ashish Shelar, senior leader of MumbaiBJP and general secretary Amarjeet Mishra, Vice president ofMumbai BJP Sanjay Upadhyay along with other leaders werepresent. Mumbai BJP general secretary Amarjeet Mishra, whooften organises such events for North Indians, said, "The workthat chief minister of Uttar Pradesh didn’t and couldn’t dohere in Mumbai (to connect with the North Indians), is beingdone by Devendraji." PTI APM NP TIRRDS