Maharashtra Elections 2024: Chandrakant Patil after filing nomination from Kothrud, 'People have decided to give Mahayuti majority'

Chandrakant Patil. File Photo

Maharashtra minister and BJP candidate from Kothrud, Chandrakant Patil, expressed confidence that the people have resolved to give the Mahayuti alliance a decisive majority in the Maharashtra Elections 2024. Patil's remarks came after filing his nomination for the Kothrud seat on Thursday.

Patil ascribed the public's support to the repercussions of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill's referral to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, which he claimed left ministers and ordinary residents feeling misled. He compared this with the rapid repeal of Article 370, implying that people have become more watchful and motivated to provide a strong mandate.

"There was a bit of betrayal felt regarding the Waqf amendment bill, not only the ministers but common people felt that the bill should not have been sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee. When the abrogation of Article 370 was passed, it was passed in the morning, first by cabinet then went through Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and by night the president signed it, but this was not the case because in Lok Sabha there were little less seats won, so no people have decided to give a majority to the party," Patil added.

The minister also discussed the shift in voter attitudes: "People were casual before, that the party would cross 400 anyway, but now they will be attentive and vote for us."

Patil paid tribute at the Vinayak Damodar Savarkar memorial in Pune before submitting his nomination papers for Maharashtra Elections 2024. He thanked the BJP leadership for choosing him as the party's candidate for Kothrud for the second time, emphasising his continued service to the people and commitment to addressing the constituency's few outstanding issues.

"BJP top leadership have selected me as the candidate from the assembly for the second time. Today, I am filing the nominations. Voters are the king Ever since I got elected last time, I have been in between the people and working in their service, raising the questions they have. In Kothrud there are not a lot of problems now, but the ones which are left I will work to fix them," he said.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill of 2024 proposes various improvements, including record digitisation, stronger audits, more openness, and legal steps to reclaim illegally occupied Waqf holdings.

Maharashtra Elections 2024 are slated for November 20, with counting on November 23. The struggle is projected to be between two major alliances: the Mahayuti, which comprises the BJP, NCP (Ajit Pawar), and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde); and the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which includes the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (Sharad Pawar).

In the 2019 elections, the BJP won 105 seats, Shiv Sena 56, and Congress 44.