Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday shouldered the responsibility for the Bharatiya Janata Party's Lok Sabha polls defeat in the state. He also offered to resign as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state after party's poor performance.
The reaction comes after the BJP’s Lok Sabha tally came down from 23 to 9 in Maharashtra.
“I take the responsibility for the result in Maharashtra. I am requesting the party leadership to relieve me from the responsibility in the government so that I can work full time for the party in upcoming assembly elections,” Fadnavis said.
The assembly elections in Maharashtra are scheduled in less than six months from now. “The entire responsibility for this result is mine. I agree that I was lacking somewhere in all this and am going to make all efforts to overcome this shortcoming,” he told a press conference after a review meeting on Lok Sabha results.
The meeting, convened a day after the election results were announced, was attended by top BJP leaders, including state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule. The primary agenda was to analyse the party's performance and discuss future strategies.
“I take full responsibility for the setback the BJP suffered in Maharashtra. Now I want to focus on assembly elections and that is why I am going to request the BJP’s top leadership to relieve me from my responsibility in the government and give me a chance to work full time in the party,” Fadnavis said.
“I am going to meet the senior BJP leaders soon and do whatever they ask me to,” he said. “Farmers' issues played a dominant role in some seats. Also, the false propaganda that the Constitution would be altered impacted some voters,” the Deputy CM said.
He said coordination issues exist with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar of NCP.
When asked to respond later on the remarks by Fadnavis, Shinde said that they had fought elections collectively and the defeat was a collective responsibility.
“The responsibility for the defeat is of all three parties, we worked together,” Shinde said.
In Maharashtra, the Mahayuti alliance – comprising BJP, Shiv Sena (led by Eknath Shinde) and NCP (led by Ajit Pawar ) got 17 Lok Sabha seats while the Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) secured 30 seats of the total 48 seats.
The Congress won 13 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) got nine seats and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) won eight seats. The BJP won nine seats, Shiv Sena won seven seats and NCP won just one seat, taking the Mahayuti tally to 17 seats.