Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis has denied the claim of BJP MP Ananth Kumar Hegde that he had sent back ₹40,000 crores to the center during his 4-day term as CM of the state. He said that he didn’t take any such major decisions before resigning on 26th November.
Earlier Ananth Kumar Hegde had made a sensational claim saying that Devendra Fadnavis took oath as CM despite not having the numbers so that the fund of ₹40,000 can be transferred to the central government, to ‘protect’ it from being misused by the next Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government. Giving a new twist to the political drama that lasted in Maharashtra for more than a month after the assembly elections in October, Hegde had said, “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 majority, why did he become CM? This is the question commonly every one ask.”
After that he proceeded to answer that question by saying, “More than about Rs 40,000 crore was under CM’s control. If NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena come to power certainly that Rs 40,000 crore would not have gone for development work and would have gone for different things (misused). It was entirely planned earlier itself. Once we got to know, it was decided that a big drama was necessary. So, adjustments were made and oath was taken, after oath within 15 hours Fadnavis systematically ensured that the (money reaches where it had to and protected it.” After he added, “if it had been kept here – the next chief minister -you know what would have happened.”
Hegde made these comments while addressing an election rally for bypoll in Yellapur in Karnataka on Saturday. But today Devendra Fadnavis rejected the claim after it was reported by national media today.
#WATCH Former Maharashtra CM & BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Ananth K Hegde (BJP) remark, ‘Devendra Fadnavis became CM & in 15 hours he moved Rs 40,000 crores back to Centre’: No such major policy decision has been taken by me as CM. All such allegations are false. pic.twitter.com/wSEDOMGF4N
— ANI (@ANI) December 2, 2019
“No such thing happened. These are completely false claims. I took no policy decision when I was in office. This is not the way these things happen. The government’s finance department can investigate such claims,” he said. He added that those who understand the accounting systems of state and central governments will understand that such transfer of money does not happen.
Fadnavis also added that the Maharashtra government is not spending any money for the bullet train, and its role in the project is limited to land acquisition. Not a single paisa has been returned to the central government by the Maharashtra government when he was CM and then acting CM. He urged the finance department to investigate the matter and bring the facts to the public. Making such wrong statements, and reacting to such wrong statements, both are absolutely wrong, he asserted.
Ananth Kumar Hegde seems to have got misled by a WhatsApp message containing a similar claim that went viral in the last few days.
