PMC polls: Empty chairs at Fadnavis' Pune rally prompt BJP to cancel event

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was on Saturday left red-faced due to low turnout of people at a rally organised in Pune for the upcoming zilla parishad and municipal corporation elections.

Fadnavis had to leave the venue without delivering his campaign speech as very few people had come to attend the rally. Almost all the chairs lined up at the venue for public were empty.

However, the Chief Minister later tweeted, saying, “I have cancelled my public meeting at Pune due to miscommunication of time of rally. I regret for the same. Heading towards Pimpri Chinchwad”.

He later addressed a rally in Pimpri-chinchwad, which will go to polls in less than a week’s time.

Sanjay Kakade, Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra, also said, “The turnout at the rally was low because of miscommunication of the timings of the event. There was contention regarding the timing of the rally – at 2 pm or 4 pm, which led to confusion in informing the public about the event”.

Ashok Chavan, state Congress president, said, “The empty chairs at the CM's Pune rally was the reply from the people against the BJP government. I did four meetings in Pune but every rally had at least 3000-4000 people. I went to Pune urban, rural, Chakan and Pimpri-chinchwad and received a good response. Even businessmen and traders delegation met me in Pune expressing unhappiness about BJP.”

Meanwhile, Twitter users trolled the BJP with some of them tweeting that even the Chief Minister was not successful in bringing the people of Pune out of their homes for an election rally.