Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has offered to resign after claiming responsibility for the BJP's poor showing in the Lok Sabha election in the state. "Whatever loss we suffered in Maharashtra... I take full responsibility. I urge top leadership to relieve me of my ministerial duties..."
The senior BJP leader said issues affecting farmers - who have emerged, some believe, as a problematic voter base for the saffron party since the national protests of 2020/21 - had affected 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," he said Wednesday.
BJP, Allies Slip Up In Lok Sabha Poll
In 2019 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.
Mr Fadnavis was then the Chief Minister.
This time the party - allied with the splinter units of the Sena and NCP that had helped Mr Fadnavis bring down the opposition alliance that succeeded him - 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.
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By contrast, the formerly undivided NCP of Sharad Pawar and Mr 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.
That 240 is 32 seats short of the majority mark, meaning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party must now actively rely on NDA partners like Mr Shinde and Ajit Pawar's parties.
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Of course, losing Mr 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 Mr Modi to be PM.
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For now, the NDA's numbers are holding strong. Mr 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.
2019 Maharashtra Assembly Election
In the 2019 Assembly election the BJP won 105 of the state's 288 seats and the Sena got 56. The two were set to form the government unopposed but differences over who would become Chief Minister - Mr Fadnavis or Uddhav Thackeray - led to an acrimonious split.
In a surprise move, the Sena then reached out to the NCP (54) and the Congress (44) and formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government with Mr Thackeray at the helm.
The MVA was destroyed three years later after Mr Shinde and rebel Sena leaders walked out and joined the BJP, triggering a prolonged political and legal war that continues to play out in the Supreme Court.
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