"We do not believe in encounters but cops cannot clap when attacked and shot at," says Devendra Fadnavis

"We do not believe in encounters and I personally believe that the rule of law must be followed and, accordingly, the criminal must be punished and that must be done quickly. Our police will not clap if attacked, and they shot at the accused in self-defence," Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said.

Speaking on the Badlapur sexual assault and the encounter wherein the accused was shot and eliminated by cops in self-defence, he said the police "will not clap" if attacked. 

the accused Akshay Shinde charged for abusing two girls at a Badlapur school, was killed by police in retaliatory firing after he snatched the pistol of a cop and shot at the escorting team when he was being taken to Badlapur from Taloja jail,

A day later, hoardings congratulating Fadnavis sprang up in various locations in Mumbai. The hoardings showed Fadnavis holding a gun with the text -- Badla Pura (revenge complete), a wordplay on Badlapur.

When asked about it, Fadnavis said he doesn't support such hoardings and the euphoria following the shooting of the accused.

"Putting up such hoardings is absolutely wrong. This should not happen at all. I believe that this glorification of such an incident should not happen," the former Chief Minister said, underscoring that the state CID would conduct a fair probe into the incident.  

With the Maharashtra Assembly polls just weeks away, Fadnavis asserted that the BJP would emerge as the largest party in the election and the Mahayuti alliance would come to power with a full majority.

"The BJP is the number one party in Maharashtra and will remain so," Fadnavis, the BJP's most prominent face in the state, said. The BJP leader, however, made it clear that there would be no rotational Chief Minister if the alliance came to power.

When asked about the BJP's poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls, where it was reduced to just nine seats, Fadnavis said calling the saffron party "weak" was a wrong analysis.

"We may have just won 9 seats. But, we lost 12 seats by narrow margins, anywhere between 5,000-6,000 votes. The Maha Vikas Aghadi won by peddling a fake narrative. People have seen through that, and we have gained ground," he said.

Fadnavis, however, acknowledged that the BJP supporters initially didn't approve of the induction of Ajit Pawar's NCP into the Mahayuti government due to its links to alleged corruption.

Fadnavis's remark came after he was asked about an RSS journal blaming the NCP for the Mahayuti coalition's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.