"Vote Jihad" should be countered by "Dharma-yuddha" of vote, Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said here on Saturday as he campaigned for the November 20 assembly elections.
The BJP leader was speaking at a rally in support of Mahayuti coalition candidates Atul Save (Aurangabad East), Sanjay Shirsat (Aurangabad West) and Pradip Jaiswal (Aurangabad Central).
"No one can change the name of this city now. At an AIMIM rally here, someone asked who was Sambhaji Maharaj. Sambhaji Maharaj remained undefeated for nine years. So we have given his name to the city," he said.
The city, earlier known as Aurangabad, was renamed for Sambhaji, the second ruler of the Maratha state after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
"A vote Jihad has begun in the state now. We saw that in the Lok Sabha elections. In Dhule, we were ahead by 1.90 lakh votes but the Malegaon (assembly segment) had 1.94 lakh votes and we were defeated by only 4,000 votes. This vote Jihad was the reason for our defeat there because we were not together," said the BJP leader.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has given the message 'batenge to katenge' (divided we perish) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said 'ek rahenge to safe rahenge' (united we remain safe), Fadnavis said.
The election is an opportunity to show that Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar was a saffron fortress, he added.
Without naming Shiv Sena (UBT) chief and former BJP ally Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis said late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray gave the name `Sambhajinagar' to this city, "and now some people are ashamed to call Bal
Thackeray Hindu-hridaya-samrat (ruler of Hindu hearts) and they call him 'Janab' Bal Thackeray.
This is an election for crushing the dreams of those who are trying to bring the rule of Razakars to the city, he said in a swipe at the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). -- PTI