NAGPUR: In a bitter exchange of words over Maharashtra's chief minister's seat between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Congress leader and Maharashtra's Leader of Opposition and Vijay Wadettiwar on Saturday, Wadettiwar said that Maharashtra's CM Eknath Shinde will be changed by September.

While talking to the media, Wadettiwar said, "What's happening in Maharashtra is not right, this government will not last. There is a danger to the CM's in Maharashtra. I can say there will be a change in the main chair by September."

Bawankule responded to Wadettiwar's jibe by dismissing the allegations and said that all BJP functionaries including senior leaders and the deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had clarified several times that Shinde would remain their leader till the 2024 polls. 

Bawankule even said that the forthcoming assembly polls would be fought together with the three alliance parties including the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the BJP and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) keeping Shinde as the CM candidate. He said, "All the three partner parties will work under Shinde and we would win over 200 assembly seats. Even now, the government is working with over 200 legislators and Shinde will remain our leader."

The BJP, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the breakaway NCP faction which is under the second deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar after Devendra Fadnavis are currently the ruling alliance in the state government. 

Ajit Pawar along with some party legislators had engineered a split from the Sharad Pawar-founded NCP and joined the state government last month and while he was sworn in as the second deputy CM, eight of his party colleagues were sworn in as ministers in the state cabinet.

Bawankule also reacted to an editorial article in Saamna which is considered the mouthpiece of Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray that had sought to flay flaying Fadnavis, saying that although he was a sensitive person earlier, after becoming the deputy CM he had lost his sensitivity and became a giant of ego. "The inferiority complex of being the 'deputy' of the 'chief' has upset him (Fadnavis)," the article had said.

Bawankule said that "This is a misuse of the freedom granted to the media. There is a limit to everything. We will not tolerate such lies about our leaders." He also said that such an article showed Uddhav Thackeray's frustration after losing the chief minister's chair, his party and even his symbol. He also warned that a case would be filed against them for defaming BJP politicians and that party cadres will hit the streets to protest the article.