Mumbai. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said his party’s slogan ‘Bantenge to Katenge’ has been coined in response to the election campaign of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The BJP leader claimed that his colleagues Ashok Chavan and Pankaja Munde as well as Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar failed to understand its ‘original’ meaning.
This slogan, repeatedly used by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the campaign for the November 20 assembly elections in Maharashtra, has united the opposition to condemn it. The opposition claims that the slogan has communal implications, while some leaders of the ruling coalition have also objected to it.
While talking to select journalists here, Fadnavis said that ‘Bantenge to Katenge’ (Division will lead to destruction) is a slogan coined in response to the divisive election campaign of the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi, the basic message of this slogan is that ” Everyone has to stay together.” Fadnavis said, “This slogan does not mean that we are against Muslims. We did not say that the benefits of Ladki Bahin Yojana will not be given to Muslim women.”
He said, “‘Bantenge to Katenge’ is also the answer to the appeasement (politics) of Congress and MVA. They used ‘Vote Jihad’ during the Lok Sabha elections and posters were put up in mosques, urging people to vote for a particular party. What kind of secularism is this?”