Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said he was mocked for his 2019 assembly poll campaign punchline "I will be back" but asserted he returned to power after breaking two parties, a reference to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party.

The Shiv Sena split in June 2022 after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde rebelled, while the Nationalist Congress Party broke into two factions in July last year after Ajit Pawar joined the ruling alliance in the state.

Speaking at a book launch in Mumbai, 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 BJP won a sizable number of seats and could have formed a government with the Shiv Sena (after 2019 assembly polls). However, Uddhav Thackeray betrayed us and we had to sit in the opposition," he said.