On Tuesday, 18 December, while Modi was in Maharashtra to lay the foundation of a metro rail, Kishore Tiwari — the Chairperson of the Maharashtra government’s panel on farmer issues — wrote a letter to RSS chiefs asking them to replace Modi with Union Minister Gadkari for the Lok Sabha elections.

According to an IANS report, Kishore Tiwari, who heads the Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission, asked for Modi’s replacement, complaining that Modi is interested “only in grandiose Bullet Trains and Metro Rail projects.”