Fadnavis offers to leave Dy CM post after Lok Sabha defeat

Mumbai: A day after the drubbing in Lok Sabha elections, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday requested the BJP leadership to relieve him from the post of the Maharashtra deputy chief minister stating that he is responsible for the poor performance in the state. Mr. Fadnavis said that he wants to work for the party organisation for Maharashtra Assembly election in the next three to four months. The BJP leader’s remark came in the backdrop of lacklustre performance in the state, where the saffron party’s tally dropped drastically from 23 seats in 2019 to just nine seats in Lok Sabha election of this year.

Mr. Fadnavis held a meeting at the party state headquarter with the members of the state election management committee and core committee to analyse the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

After a more than two hours long meeting, the BJP leader told the reporters that he is taking full responsibility for the debacle of the party. “I am fully taking the responsibility for the debacle of the party in Maharashtra as I am leading the BJP.... I am going to request the party leadership to relinquish me from the government and give me an opportunity to work full time for the party organisation.... I will also meet the party leadership in this regard,” he said.

The BJP leader admitted that he needs to take corrective measures for the upcoming Assembly election. “We will chalk out new strategies along with our party leaders and go to the people in order to obtain the trust of the people,” he said.  

Explaining about the causes of the lacklustre performance, the BJP leader said that they failed to counter the narrative set by the opposition that his party wants to change the Constitution. “Besides this, there are multiple reasons for the debacle. These reasons include our inability to assess anti-incumbency against our candidates. Due to some delay related onion export policy, we have faced a setback in the onion belt,” Mr. Fadnavis said.

Acknowledging the lack of coordination among alliance partners, Fadnavis said, “We have identified some key issues which will be resolved with them (Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar) in a meeting.”

Expressing confidence that the Mahayuti will come back stronger in the assembly elections, Fadnavis pointed out that the votes received by the rival alliances were almost equal. “The MVA got 2.50 crore votes, while the Mahayuti got 2.48 crore votes. We have got two lakh votes less than the MVA. But these two lakh votes have helped the MVA to get 30 seats,” he said.