Maharashtra Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: Will state govt survive this?

Taking all responsibility for the partyrsquos poor show in Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has offered to quit the government and work fulltime for the BJP organisation to recover the LS loss in the 2024 winter Assembly elections He said he would formally ask the party leadership to relieve him He stayed put despite the state BJP core committee leadersrsquo appeal that they would not let him go from the triparty governmentFadnavisrsquos announcement wasnrsquot expected said the state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule It came at the end of DCMrsquos press conference he held to brief the media about the reasons for the BJPrsquos depletion Fadnavis listed a number of sociopolitical issues most importantly certain narratives set by the Opposition that he said the BJP could not counter effectively Before the media conference senior leaders had met to analyse the defeatldquoIt is my responsibility I lacked somewhere but I will try to recover the losses in the Assembly elections I take sole responsibility for the setback my party has received in Maharashtra I will request the party leadership to relieve me from the position in the government so that I can give more time to the party organisation I will stay out of the government and work fulltime for the partyrdquo he said adding ldquoIrsquom not a person who will lose courage I will work harder than everrdquoDeputy CM Devendra Fadnavis at a rally during Lok Sabha polls File picsBut before expressing his desire to quit Fadnavis presented statistics showing that there was a slight difference between the polling percentage of the NDA and MVA In Mumbai NDA polled more votes than the MVA but lost seats he said adding that nearly ten seats were lost by a small marginFadnavisrsquos announcement marked restlessness in the BJP camp which has been already upset because of a massive drop in the partyrsquos gain and its political consequences in the future Akin to the situation that prevailed after Fadnavis was reluctant to be Eknath Shindersquos deputy in 2022 the atmosphere in the BJP camp was tense as he made the last statement Instead of accepting a demotion then Fadnavis had asked for permission to work in the organisationShocked by the DCMrsquos statement Bawankule Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar and other senior members of the election and core committee led Fadnavis inside and attempted to convince him to change his mind Later in the day senior leaders from the BJP Shinde Sena and NCP Ajit Pawar turned up at Fadnavisrsquos official residence to convince him to stay on in the government Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis during the press conference at the BJP office on Wednesday PicPTIldquoWe canrsquot do without him in the government He can contribute to the organisation even when he is in the government We wish to go to the Assembly elections under Fadnavisrsquos leadership He alone cannot be responsible for our performance in the Lok Sabha electionrdquo said Bawankule hoping that Fadnavis would consider their request to rethink his decisionQuestions galoreSpeculations were rife as to why Fadnavis had made his wish public There was no way to know whether he had consulted the leadership before offering his resignation If not then a question was raised over his tenacity to make such a declaration without having a say from the high command In 2022 he was made a DCM because the leadership in Delhi wanted to use his experience of running the government between 2014 and 2019 to smoothen the formation which was first participated by Shinde Sena and joined a year later by Ajit Pawar Fadnavis carried multiple roles as the principal minister strategist and decisionmaker in the state BJP of course with approval and consultation from the high command that had supervised a split in the undivided Sena and NCP Fadnavis had played an important role in both breakups and turned out to be a villain for the Opposition No wonder then a question was raised over the stability of the Shinde Sarkar by those who thought there was no alternative to Fadnavis as a bonding agent of the Mahayuti Political circles were abuzz with a discussion over Fadnavisrsquos successor in the government BJP insiders said that Bawankulersquos term of presidency was about to end soon and he might make way for Fadnavis Some people in the BJP tipped Sudhir Mungantiwar as the next state BJP president Some said if Fadnavis goes to the BJP headquarters Mungantiwar would be promoted in the governmentChandrashekhar Bawankule BJP state presidentBlame it on surveys SenaAlso according to buzz before the election results were announced Shinde would be replaced but his partyrsquos lsquobetter than the BJPrsquo show has given him more teeth to stall the BJPrsquos moves His party leaders have blamed certain things that were devised by the BJP for stopping them from winning more seats The BJP and Shinde Sena were engaged in prolonged negotiations for seats and candidates In many places the names were announced at the last hour The BJP was accused of making Shinde change candidates drop sitting MPs and exchangevacate seats Finally Shinde did not buckle under undue pressure and got a doubledigit number in seatsharing Earlier in the day Shinde Sena spokesperson and MLA Sanjay Shirsat came down heavily on the surveys that led to replacement of sitting MPs and poor selection of candidates in some places ldquoSurveys many surveys different surveys were the centrepoint We changed candidates because of these surveys and lost at many placesrdquo he said adding that his party would have won more than seven seatsHe said they lost in some places because of the delay in candidature ldquoA lot of politics had taken place before we placed our candidates at the eleventh hour It is necessary to talk about it because we would have bettered our strike rate even furtherrdquo he saidShirsat said the Uddhav Thackeray Sena was wrong in celebrating the victory ldquoThe Congress and NCP SP benefited because of UBT The UBT Sena revived the dead and suffered losses in many seats because its partners did not work Remember Sangli Think about the losses But they are not ready Instead they will go to Delhi to see Rahul Gandhirdquo he saidAjit NCP upsetThe second DCM Ajit Pawar doesnrsquot have much to bargain with but his party has already started talking about getting more seats to share in the Assembly elections It was learnt that Pawar would skip the NDA meeting in New Delhi Apparently he was upset and crushed under massive defeats in three places including Baramati He has finished at the bottom winning only one seat out of fourHis partyrsquos MLC and spokesperson Amol Mitkari blamed the NDA partners for not transferring votes to Sunetra Pawar in the Baramati constituency ldquoWe trailed in all six Assembly segments The leaders from NDA parties read BJP and Shinde Sena did not work for usrdquo he said adding that whatever votes Pawar got was because of her husbandrsquos influenceldquoThere was no other reason for us to lose by a huge margin How can a leader who works so hard lose here We would have won by nearly 50000 votesrdquoHe said the partyrsquos future would be in danger if the trend continued in the alliance ldquoWe did not get Nashik Parbhani Gadchiroli We could have won them We lost Shirur because of others The leaders did not work despite instructions from the BJP high command I will take this up in the partyrsquos meeting the day after I dont fear consequencesrdquo he said9No of seats won by BJP in the state1No of seats won by NCP