After Maharashtra BJP's poor show, Devendra Fadnavis offers to resign
What's the story
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday offered to step down from his position, in the wake of the Bharatiya Janata Party's disappointing performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
The party's tally in Maharashtra dropped from 23 seats in 2019 to just nine in 2024.
Taking full responsibility for the party's setback, Fadnavis said during a press conference, "I want to work at the organizational level to improve the performance of the party in the ensuing Assembly elections."
Press conference
Fadnavis takes responsibility for BJP's electoral setback
"I am going to request my central leadership to free me from the responsibility of the post in the state government," he added.
The deputy CM made these remarks after a review meeting on the Lok Sabha election results of the state BJP.
Convened a day after the results were announced, the meeting included top BJP leaders, such as state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
The primary agenda was to analyze the party's performance and discuss future strategies.
Election results
Opposition overshadows BJP's performance
The BJP and its allies secured 17 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, a significant decline from 2019.
Their performance was overshadowed by the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which includes the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT), and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar).
The MVA won 30 seats, with the Congress increasing its tally to 13 seats from just one in 2019, the Shiv Sena (UBT) winning nine seats, and the NCP (SP) securing eight.
Election analysis
'False narratives hurt BJP's performance': Fadnavis
During the press conference, Fadnavis said that while the number of seats lost by the BJP was significant, the party's vote share had only decreased by 1.2%.
He added that several factors contributed to the BJP's defeat, including "false narratives" spread by the opposition about scrapping the Constitution, and issues related to onion and soybean prices.
Following his resignation announcement, the party's core committee urged him to reconsider. The final decision, however, will be made by the party's central leadership.
Statement
Eknath Shinde responds to Fadnavis's announcement
Hours after Fadnavis made the announcement, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said, "I will be speaking to Devendraji soon. We have worked together in the past and we will keep on working in the future."
"It is a temporary success to try to get votes by misleading the public...We are moving forward with a development agenda. We have collectively failed to counter the false claims of the opposition," he added.