Fadnavis has submitted his resignation following the BJP’s poor performance in the Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections. Fadnavis, who served as the state’s Chief Minister from 2014 to 2019, stated, “I request my top bosses to relieve me from government responsibilities and let me work for the party… from outside.”
In the 2019 elections, the BJP, allied with the undivided Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray, won 23 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats it contested in Maharashtra, while the Shiv Sena secured 18 of the 23 seats it contested. This time, however, the BJP, in alliance with the splinter groups of the Sena and NCP, managed to win only nine seats.
The rebel Sena group led by Eknath Shinde and NCP’s Ajit Pawar, now Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively, won seven and one of the 15 and four seats they contested.
In contrast, the undivided NCP led by Sharad Pawar and Thackeray’s Sena, both renamed after losing their party name and symbol to breakaway factions, won eight of 12 and nine of 21 seats they contested. The Congress secured 13 of the 15 seats it contested, significantly boosting the opposition INDIA bloc.
The combined haul of 30 seats out of Maharashtra’s 48 by the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance significantly contributed to reducing the BJP’s national advantage. The BJP, which had won 282 seats in the 2014 elections and 303 in 2019, managed only 240 seats this time, falling 32 seats short of the majority mark. Consequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party must now rely heavily on NDA partners, including Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s factions.
