The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced that it would maintain the status quo in the leadership of Maharashtra ahead of the state assembly elections. The BJP also claimed that it was formulating a blueprint for the Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP combine to win the state assembly polls due later this year.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Maharashtra BJP’s core group in the presence of party president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “There is no change. We need to form a strong Mahayuti NDA government in Maharashtra,” Union Home Minister Piyush Goyal said.
The meeting discussed Mahayuti’s dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections and strategies to win the state elections. Senior BJP leaders BL Santosh, Bhupender Yadav, Ashwini Vaishnav, state BJP leaders Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Sudheer Mungantiwar, Chandrakant Patil, Pankaja Munde, Raosaheb Danve and Vinod Tawde were also present.
In the 2024 general elections, the BJP is set to win just nine seats in the state, down from 23 in 2019. Soon after the election results were out, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis offered to resign from the Mahayuti government to focus on organising the BJP to win the state assembly elections.
Fadnavis, who was also present at the meeting, told reporters that the vote share difference between the ruling Mahayuti Party and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was just 0.3 percent.
“Since the difference between Mahayuthi and the MVA is just 0.3 percent, we discussed in detail where we had lost votes, where we faced problems and what corrective measures needed to be taken,” he said.
The results in the Lok Sabha polls have been discussed and a blueprint for the upcoming state assembly elections has been planned, a senior BJP leader said, adding that the BJP’s partners in Maharashtra — Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP — would soon draw up a roadmap for the Lok Sabha polls.
“Furthermore, we have discussed the strategic blueprint ahead of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections. We will soon be formulating a roadmap for the Vidhan Sabha elections along with our NDA partners,” he added.
(Provided by agency)
