Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis attacked the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) Monday, calling them the “Congress Jitao Programme” and accusing them of having been a part of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. Fadnavis was addressing the BJP’s state-level convention in Pune. He also attacked the Congress leader’s student outreach programme, “Chhatron Ki Goonj”, terming it as “Jhooth Ki Goonj”.
“Don’t consider CJP as a small organisation. CJP is Congress Jitao Programme. The ones who are the face of CJP are just pawns. The real ones are behind the scenes who were a part of Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Fadnavis said.
“Chhatron Ki Goonj is actually a Jhoot ki Goonj,” he added, citing a website that claims to have fact-checked statements made by Rahul Gandhi during the student outreach campaign.
Talking about the issue of Ram Temple donation theft being taken up by the Opposition, Fadnavis said that they are spreading fake narratives and forcing a political contest after failing to defeat the BJP ideologically.
“The Opposition has understood that they can not win the battle of ideology, which is why they are resorting to the battle of issues. But we will not lose this battle; we will win it, the way we broke their fake narrative. Their next target is Kumbh Mela,” he said.
Addressing BJP workers at the convention, he said that they need to focus on attracting Gen Z and the youth, and for that the medium of communication needs to be improved.
“Currently there are 2 crore people in the state who are in the age bracket of 18-26. Most of the youth are on Instagram. 40 percent of the youth consume the content on Instagram while 90 percent of us are on Facebook. We need to change our medium of communication. I give a task to our Yuva Morcha to get at least 10 lakh such youths on our side,” he said.
Commenting on the ongoing debate in Pune over the use of loudspeakers and noise pollution during Ganeshotsav, Fadnavis said that the city has the potential to show the rest of the state how the festival can be celebrated in keeping with traditions.
“I am confident that instead of getting into a controversy over whether Ganeshotsav should be celebrated with or without DJs and loudspeakers, Punekars will choose to celebrate the festival entirely in the traditional way,” he said.
(Edited by Niyati Kothiyal)