Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said that he was mocked for his 2019 Assembly election campaign catchphrase "I will be back," but emphasized that he made a comeback to power by splitting two parties.
At a book launch, Mr Fadnavis said, "I not only came back, but returned after breaking two parties. It took two-and-half years to come back to power. I had read out a poem during the 2019 assembly poll campaign but only one line from it became popular."
The parties he referred to were the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar's NCP. The Shiv Sena divided in June 2022 after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde rebelled, and the Nationalist Congress Party fragmented into two factions in July of the previous year when Ajit Pawar joined the state's ruling coalition.
His aspirations of becoming a Chief Minister were not realized as Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, a BJP ally for three decades, broke ties and established the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in collaboration with the NCP-Congress alliance. His efforts to establish a government with Ajit Pawar were also short-lived.
Fadnavis' catchphrase, "mi punha yein" (I will return again), gained popularity during the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election campaign.
[With inputs from PTI]