The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is still undecided about Devendra Fadnavis’s future ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls scheduled for next month.
While a section of the party thinks that Fadnavis, the current Deputy Chief Minister in the Eknath Shinde government, is the most prominent BJP face in the state who enjoys the confidence of RSS and is favoured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to a report in Indian Express.
Others blame Fadnavis for BJP’s failure to get a majority in the 2019 Assembly polls and the recent collapse in the Lok Sabha elections 2024, which saw the party being reduced to nine seats from 23 in Maharashtra in 2019.
Now, according to the Indian Express report, there is a buzz that Fadnavis be brought to the Centre. Some have even suggested his name for party president succeeding JP Nadda whose term is long over. Fadnavis played a crucial role in candidate selection and party’s strategy on Lok Sabha polls and hence he should be held accountable for the abysmal performance of the BJP, some in the party feel.
Speculation about Fadnavis’s move to Delhi has been there earlier as well, only to be ruled out by BJP leaders.
BJP won just 9 seats in Lok Sabha Polls
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) won 30 of the Maharasthra’s 48 seats in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha Elections 2024. The ruling Mahayuti, a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), bagged just 17 seats of which BJP won 9 seats.
Shinde has been assured that he would retain the post of Chief Minister even if his party wins only a few seats in the upcoming election for 288-member Maharashtra house.
In 2019, the NDA had won 43 of the 48 seats from Maharashtra while the then UPA had bagged the remaining five seats.
Fadnavis’s role has been pivotal in candidate selection, and some within the party believe he must be held accountable for the BJP’s recent electoral failures.
The Maharashtra election is expected to witness a two-way fight between the MVA coalition, of the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP – Sharad Pawar and the Congress, and the Mahayuti Alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena-Eknath Shinde and NCP-Ajit Pawar.
In 2019 the BJP and undivided Sena coalition had come to power in the state but later split.
