New Delhi, June 5: Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader, Devendra Fadnavis, has offered to resign, taking full responsibility for the party’s poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The BJP’s tally in Maharashtra drastically dropped from 23 seats in 2019 to just nine this year. Fadnavis announced his decision during a press conference at the BJP office in Mumbai on June 5, 2024, following a review meeting on the Lok Sabha results. “Whatever loss we suffered in Maharashtra… I take full responsibility. I urge the top leadership to relieve me of my ministerial duties,” Fadnavis stated.
Fadnavis expressed his desire to focus on strengthening the party at the organisational level in preparation for the upcoming Assembly elections. “I want to work at the organisational level to improve the performance of the party in the ensuing Assembly elections. I want to devote my full time to strengthening the organization. I am going to request my central leadership to free me from the responsibility of the post in the state government,” he said.
The review meeting, held a day after the election results were announced, was attended by top BJP leaders, including state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule. Despite the BJP and its allies securing 17 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, the results marked a significant decline compared to the 2019 elections.
Fadnavis pointed to issues affecting farmers, who have been a challenging voter base for the BJP since the national protests of 2020-2021, as a major factor in the election results. He also accused the opposition of spreading “false propaganda” about potential constitutional changes, referencing the Congress’s claims that the BJP would alter the Constitution, including removing the word ‘secular’ from the Preamble, if given an overwhelming mandate.
In the 2019 elections, the BJP, in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray, won 23 out of 25 seats it contested in Maharashtra, while the Shiv Sena won 18 out of the 23 seats it contested. At that time, Fadnavis was the Chief Minister.
In the recent elections, the BJP, allied with splinter units of the Sena and NCP, managed to win only nine seats. Its allies, led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, who were made Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively, won eight out of the 19 seats they contested.
By contrast, the undivided NCP of Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena, now rebranded after losing the party name and symbol to the factions, won eight out of 12 and nine out of 21 seats contested, respectively. The Congress, a member of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance along with the Sena and NCP, won 13 out of the 15 seats it contested.
The combined haul of 30 seats by the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance in Maharashtra significantly contributed to the INDIA bloc’s efforts to reduce the BJP’s overall lead. The BJP, which had secured 282 seats in 2014 and 303 seats in 2019, won just 240 seats this time.