Maharashtra Deputy CM Fadnavis offers to resign from position after Ajit Pawar's 'sidelined' claim

Hours after Bharatiya Janata Party's Maharashtra unit held a meeting in the state to discuss the Lok Sabha election results, state deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis in a press briefing offered to step down from the position in the government.

Fadnavis said, he takes responsibility for the party's poor show in the state where it party won nine Lok Sabha seats in the state, where its tally dwindled by 14 as compared to the 2019 parliamentary polls.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 23 seats in Maharashtra.

Significantly, Fadnavis' move comes hours after Amol Mitkari --NCP MLA and aide of Ajit Pawar claimed that the party was sidelined during the election campaign in the state.

Mitkari made big claims during a telephonic conversation with News18.

This time, the BJP and allies won 17 seats out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, with the BJP's tally dwindling by less than half compared to 2019, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) won 30 of the 48 seats.

The BJP-led NDA fell significantly short of its target of bagging 45-plus seats in Maharashtra, garnering just 17 seats.

The Congress won 13 seats, a quantum jump from the solitary seat it won in the state in 2019, while Shiv Sena (UBT) won nine and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) got eight seats.