The induction of former chief minister Ashok Chavan has given a “booster dose” to the BJP in Nanded, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday.

Fadnavis was addressing a BJP rally in Nanded, some 270 kilometres from here, after party colleague and sitting MP Pratap Patil Chikhlikar filed his nomination papers. Chikhlikar had defeated Chavan, who was with the Congress at the time, by more than 40,000 votes in the 2019 polls. “Chikhlikar had got 43 percent votes when Chavan was contesting against him. Now, Chavan is with us and Chikhlikar’s vote percentage will go above 50. Chavan joining BJP has given a booster dose to the BJP in Nanded,” Fadnavis said. Fadnavis said Chavan, when he was in the Congress, supported the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Expressway plan while his party colleagues at the time as well as leaders of the NCP and Uddhav Thackeray had opposed it. “When the idea to connect Nanded with the Samruddhi Expressway came up, we decided to do it. We have an agenda to develop Marathwada and Vidarbha. Now, the development of Nanded and all of Marathwada will gather pace,” the deputy CM said. Chavan said he and Ajit Gopchade (in Rajya Sabha) and MPs from Nanded, Hingoli and Latur will work jointly to develop Marathwada. A chance has come after a long time that Nanded will have five MPs, Chavan claimed. “The opposition parties held rallies here and had only one agenda and that was Ashok Chavan. They should speak about development and other issues as well. We don’t want to experiment by giving the country in the hands of others. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the country on the path of development with speed,” Chavan said. Hailing Chikhlikar, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said people must vote for him as he worked for every segment of Nanded. “Chavan has accepted the leadership of PM Modi. He is senior to me and I will work under his leadership,” Chikhlikar said on the occasion.