Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday said that he would speak to his deputy, Devendra Fadnavis, after the latter said that he would like to be relieved of his ministerial responsibility following MahaYuti’s disappointing performance in the state.
“Election defeat is a collective responsibility. Reasons for defeat will be discussed and fixed. All the three parties worked together in the elections. If we look at the percentage of votes, MahaYuti got more than two lakh votes in Mumbai,” Eknath Shinde said.
“Although the seats have decreased in this election, the votes have increased. Even if DCM has expressed his feelings, I will talk to him. We are not people who get tired of failure,” he added.
Shinde, who is currently in Delhi for the NDA meeting, has thereby strongly opposed Fadnavis’ move to relieve him from the state government.
Fadnavis announced that he would request the party’s leadership to relieve him from the state government so that he can focus full-time on the preparations for the upcoming state Assembly elections slated for September-October this year.
Fadnavis’ announcement came in the wake of the BJP’s dismal performance in Maharashtra as the party could win only nine seats against the 23 it had bagged in the 2019 elections.
Besides, the BJP-led MahaYuti also failed to achieve its Mission 45 plus as it won 17 seats against 30 by Maha Vikas Aghadi.
“The narrative that the Constitution will be changed is a temporary narrative set by the opposition which was chanting ‘Modi hatao’ (Remove Modi). Prime Minister Narendra Modi has an agenda of development. In the last two years, the MahaYuti government has made many good decisions in the state. We are moving ahead with the development agenda,”Eknath Shinde said.
“Trying to get votes by misleading the public is a temporary success. Due to the propaganda of the opposition, we fell short in reducing the confusion in the minds of the public,” he added.
(IANS)
