"Will Speak To Him Soon": Eknath Shinde As Devendra Fadnavis Offers To Resign

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday said he will speak with Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, who has offered to resign from the post following the BJP's electoral reverses in the state.

Interacting with reporters here, Shinde said electoral defeat was a collective responsibility as the three parties -- BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP -- had contested the Lok Sabha elections as an alliance.

The BJP managed to win nine Lok Sabha seats in the state, as against 22 won in the 2019 elections, while the Shinde-led Shiv Sena emerged victorious on seven seats and Ajit Pawar-led NCP could win one seat. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition had won 41 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra.

"I will speak to Devendraji soon," Shinde told reporters here when asked about Fadnavis' offer to resign as deputy chief minister and focus on rebuilding the party for the assembly elections later this year.

He said the reasons for the defeat of the MahaYuti will be reviewed.

"We have worked together in the past and we will keep on working in the future. Failures must not discourage us," said Shinde, who ousted Uddhav Thackeray from the Shiv Sena, with the support of most of the party MLAs and MPs in 2022.

Thackeray's faction of the Shiv Sena won nine seats in the Lok Sabha elections.

"If you look at the vote share, Mahayuti got more than two lakh votes in Mumbai," Shinde said.

He said the ruling coalition of BJP-Shiv Sena and NCP collectively failed to counter the opposition's misleading claims during the election campaign. "The false narrative that the constitution will be changed hurt us," he said.

Shinde said the opposition was chanting "Modi hatao" (remove Modi), but the voters kept them away from power.

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