Will come back, says Fadnavis after Thackeray's jibe

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Assembly on Sunday witnessed verbal swordplay between Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his predecessor Devendra Fadnavis as the former taunted that he was in the House though he never said I will come back, an election slogan of the BJP leader who retorted that he will return as CM and they only have to wait for some time.

Thackeray's swipe was apparently about the early morning hush-hush swearing-in of Fadnavis as chief minister on November 3, along with NCP leader Ajit Pawar as deputy chief minister, after night-long dramatic political developments in Mumbai and Delhi. The two, however, resigned after Pawar pulled out.

Responding to the barbs over his "I will come back" remarks, Fadnavis said he did say it but forgot to announce a time table of his return as chief minister.

"...But I can assure you one thing, you need to wait for some time. Thinking the tide has ebbed, don't you dare build your house on the coast, for I am the sea, and I will come back," he said, quoting a famous couplet.

"I not only announced several projects in the last five years but started work on them as well. You never know, I may come back to inaugurate them," he said.

The BJP could not come to power in Maharashtra despite emerging as the single largest party as "political arithmetic prevailed over merit, Fadnavis said in the Assembly after a resolution was moved to congratulate him on being appointed the leader of opposition.

Thackeray said he won't call Fadnavis an 'opposition leader', but a 'responsible leader'. "If you would have been good to us then, all this (BJP-Shiv Sena split) would not have happened," he added.