Maha govt fully constitutional; will not only complete its term, but also win next elections: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. File Photo/PTI

The Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis Thursday assured Bharatiya Janata Party chief J P Nadda that the saffron party would win more seats in the State in the upcoming elections than it bagged in previous polls.

Lok Sabha elections are expected to be held in the country in April-May 2024, while the Assembly polls in Maharashtra are likely to be conducted in October-November next year.

The BJP-Shiv Sena (undivided) combine had won 41 out of the 48 seats in Maharashtra in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. While BJp had bagged BJP 23, the Shiv Sena had won 18. Later that year, in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, the BJP won 105 seats, while the Shiv Sena bagged 56 seats. The two parties, however, parted ways after the election results over the issue of chief minister's post. There are 288 Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra.

Currently, the BJP shares power with the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, whose rebellion toppled the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June 2022.

Addressing party workers after the BJP's state executive meeting in Pune, where Nadda and several ministers were present, Fadnavis said, "We want to assure our party's national president that he need not worry about Maharashtra. We will win more seats than we won in the previous elections."

"This is the first executive meeting of the BJP after the Supreme Court verdict on the Maharashtra government. Not a single demand out of the total eight put forth by the opposition was approved by the Supreme Court. I want to tell that our government is fully constitutional and it will not only complete its term, but also win the next elections."

The Supreme Court last week said that it cannot restore the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray as he resigned without facing a floor test in June last year. The top court said it could have considered reinstating the MVA government if Thackeray had refrained from resigning.

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Fadnavis stressed that in order to win the upcoming elections, there was a need to strengthen the party at the booth-level.

"Recently, we faced a defeat in Karnataka. At 42 places, we lost the seats by a margin of 2,000 to 3,000 votes only. Hence, there is a need to strengthen the party at the booth-level everywhere," the senior BJP leader said.

The Congress made a stunning comeback in Karnataka ousting the BJP from its lone southern citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster win that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The grand old party bagged 135 out of the 224 seats. (PTI)