BJP candidate from Amravati Lok Sabha seat, Navneet Rana has given chance to the opposition parties in the state to take a swipe at BJP after she claimed on Monday that there was no "Modi" wave.
The remark from Rana reportedly came during an address to party workers. The BJP nominee was speaking in Marathi, and the video clip of the address has been making rounds on the internet.
According to reports, media was not allowed at the meeting.
In the viral video, Rana can be heard saying, "We will have to fight this Lok Sabha election as if it were a gram panchayat election. We will have to bring all the voters to the polling booth by noon and tell them to vote. Don’t remain under the illusion that there is a Modi wave."
"In the last elections, despite a Modi wave, I won as an Independent," she added
In 2019, Navneet Rana secured victory over Shiv Sena's Anandraon Adsul by approximately 37,000 votes as an Independent candidate. However, she had the backing of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and support from the Congress at that time.
As soon as the video of Navneet rejecting the Modi wave surfaced online, opposition parties - NCP (led by Sharad Pawar) and Shiv Sena (UBT) - wasted no time in reacting to her statement, affirming that she spoke the truth.
After Rana's statement, NCP (SP) chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase hit out at BJP, stating that the saffron party itself knows there is no Modi wave. "Whatever Rana has said is a fact…And this is reflected in the way the party has gone all out to rope in one Opposition leader after another. It has even imported those leaders whom it had accused of corruption,” Tapase was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
The NCP leader added that there was panic in the BJP ranks, leading them to instruct their cadre to fight the election like a gram panchayat one.
Shiv Sena (UBT) Spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, “Forget about the Modi wave; whether he will be able to win his own seat is a major question.”
BJP minus Modi can get a majority: Swamy
Reacting to Rana's statement, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy tweeted, "not surprising to those who have followed my earlier tweets: 'BJP minus Modi can get a majority’."
