“I want to run an efficient and transparent government. I may be soft spoken but a ruthless administrator,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told him not to run the government to save it.
“Run the government and the people will save it even if you lose, people will re-elect you,” Fadnavis quoted the Prime Minister as saying.
To a question as to why talks with Sena were taking such a long time, Fadnavis said there had been a lot of bitterness during campaigning. They now want to clarify things before formalising and consolidating the alliance, he said.
He denied that BJP has asked for an apology from Sena for writing against the Prime Minister.
“We have not sought any apology...but by writing against Modi, the person who wrote it has belittled himself, not the Prime Minister. Uddhav (Thackeray) also said he did not support the comments. Modiji never reacted but what was written, it was in bad taste,” he said.
Fadnavis said if the alliance does not materialise with Shiv Sena, his party's best wishes will always be there with the former ally.
After the death of an MLA, BJP's strength in the 288-member Assembly has come down to 121, but it has claimed support of all seven Independents and six others from smaller parties.
NCP with 41 MLAs has declared outside support to the BJP government and said it will abstain from voting on the trust motion if the 63-member Shiv Sena was to sit in the opposition, helping it sail through.
