Days after announcing that he intends to resign, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has indicated that he has changed his mind, saying he is not going to run away.
His statement comes a day after Amit Shah had asked him to continue working for the Maharashtra government.
At a BJP legislators' meeting on Saturday, Mr Fadnavis, a former chief minister whose party has been reduced to nine Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra from 23 in the 2019 general elections, said, "I can see happiness on everyone's faces, PM Narendra Modi name is ringing out across the world and, yesterday, the NDA agreed on his name as Prime Minister. Today's meeting was very important. We could not get as many seats as we wanted in Maharashtra this time, but we are planning our future strategy, beginning with this meeting."
Spelling out the reasons for deciding to resign, the deputy chief minister said, "I had led the BJP in this Lok Sabha election, so I said I am responsible for this defeat. I had asked to be allowed to leave my post so that I could work at the grassroots for the Vidhan Sabha elections. But the top leadership showed faith in me. Some people thought that I was disappointed, but I am not going to run away. Our inspiration is Chhatrapati Shivaji. I have not taken any emotional decision, I have a strategy in mind."
Mr Fadnavis had met Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday, after an NDA meeting in which Narendra Modi was chosen as the leader of the alliance, paving the way for his third straight term as Prime Minister. Mr Shah was learnt to have asked Mr Fadnavis to continue in his role and begin preparations for the Maharashtra Assembly polls, which are likely to be held around October.
Speaking about his meeting with the home minister, the deputy chief minister said, "I met Amit Shah, I am not going to sit quietly for even a minute. Mr Shah also had the same opinion."
Issues That Mattered
Delving into the reasons behind the poor performance of the Mahayuti - consisting of the BJP, Eknath Shinde Faction of the Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP - which managed to win only 17 of Maharashtra's 48 Lok Sabha constituencies against the Maha Vikas Aghadi's 30, Mr Fadnavis said the opposition alliance had polled only 2 lakh more votes but the difference in seats was high.
Ahead of the elections, the opposition had successfully capitalised on the BJP's "ab ki baar 400 paar" slogan and statements by some of the ruling party's leaders that the NDA was aiming for 400 Lok Sabha seats to be able to amend the Constitution. Mr Fadnavis acknowledged that this had hurt the party.
"A narrative was prepared in the Dalit and tribal society. This will not happen in the next election. PM Modi worshipped the Constitution before being elected the leader of the NDA," the Maharashtra leader said.
The second narrative, Mr Fadnavis emphasised, was built around the Maratha community, whose reservation demand has been a persistent political and electoral issue in the state. "Since 1980, whoever opposed Maratha reservation got votes. But this will not last," he said.
The deputy chief minister also stressed that, contrary to the narrative being built that industries had been shifted out of Maharashtra, more such losses had occurred during Uddhav Thackeray's tenure as chief minister between 2019 and 2022.
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