Maha BJP leadership to remain unchanged despite LS outcome

New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday ruled out any change in its leadership in Maharashtra after the party’s poor showing in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

The decision was taken at the Maharashtra BJP’s core group meeting with party president JP Nadda and Union Home minister Amit Shah.

“There will be no change in leadership in Maharashtra,” Union minister Piyush Goyal told reporters at the BJP headquarters. The meeting was attended by state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, senior leaders Sudhir Mungantiwar, Chandrakant Patil, Pankaja Munde and Vinod Tawde, among others. The BJP won nine seats in Maharashtra in the recent Lok Sabha elections, down from its 2019 tally of 23. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had offered to resign from the MahaYuti government of Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP and focus on the organisation to win the September-October Assembly elections. The meeting at the BJP headquarters also discussed the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

Fadnavis said the leaders discussed the Lok Sabha election performance and planned the blueprint for the upcoming Assembly polls. Fadnavis said the BJP leaders will also talk with allies Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on the strategy for the Assembly elections. Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde held a late night meeting on Monday with Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar after which some state BJP leaders left for Delhi for a review meet, sources said on Tuesday. Details of the meeting were not available. It was convened in the backdrop of the ruling Mahayuti’s below par performance in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections.

The Maharashtra Assembly polls are due in October this year.