Dy.CM Devendra Fadnavis to Quit over Maharashtra result?
Dy.CM Devendra Fadnavis to Quit over Maharashtra result?
In a new development following the results in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, Maha Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis offers to tender his resignation after claiming responsibility for the BJP’s poor show in the Lok Sabha election in the state.
He went on to state that whatever loss they suffered in Maharashtra, he takes entire responsibility and urge top leadership to relieve him of ministerial duties.
The senior BJP leader further went on to add that issues affecting farmers who emerged, some believe, as a problematic voter base for the saffron party since the national protests of 2020/21 – had impacted the results.
He also blamed the opposition for “false propaganda that the Constitution would be altered”. The reference was to the Congress claiming the BJP, if elected with the overwhelming mandate sought, would change parts of the Constitution, including dropping the word ‘secular’ from the preamble.
Outright votes of Muslims and the Maratha movement also had an impact.
In 2019, reportedly, the BJP then with the undivided Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray won 23 of 25 Lok Sabha seats it fought in Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena contested the other 23 and won 18 – Fadnavis was then the Chief Minister.
This time around, the party allied with the splinter units of the Sena and NCP had helped Fadnavis to bring down the opposition alliance that succeeded him and won just nine seats. Its allies led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, who were made chief minister and deputy won eight of the 19 seats they fought.
By contrast, the formerly undivided NCP of Sharad Pawar and Thackeray’s Sena – rechristened after their main leaders after losing the party name and symbol to the factions won eight of 12 and nine of 21 seats fought. The Congress won 13 of the 15 seats it contested.
The Congress is the third member of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance formed after the 2019 state poll won by the BJP and undivided Sena, which broke over power-sharing talks.
The Sena-NCP-Congress’ haul of 30 of Maharashtra’s 48 seats helped the INDIA bloc in slashing the BJP’s lead from earlier polls. The BJP – 282 seats in 2014 and 303 in 2019 – has won just 240 this time.
The BJP’s poor show in Uttar Pradesh (winning less than half its 80 seats after claiming 62 in 2019) and Bengal, where it was humbled by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool, added to the poor result.
The 240 is 32 seats short of the majority mark, meaning PM Modi’s party now need to actively rely on NDA partners like Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s parties.
Obviously, losing Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s 17 MPs will not be as immediate a problem as Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Nitish Kumar’s JDU walking out. It would, though, make it harder for Modi to be PM.
For now, the NDA’s numbers are holding strong. PM Modi is expected to be sworn in for a third term – he will become India’s second three-term leader after Congress stalwart Jawaharlal Nehru – on Saturday.
News Edit K.V.Raman
