At executive meet, BJP reiterates only it will form govt in Maharashtra
The three-day executive meeting of the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) concluded on Saturday, with a meeting of party candidates who lost the Maharashtra Assembly polls in October. Against the backdrop of the current political scenario, the top brass of BJP’s state unit used the meetings to assert that no government would be formed in the state without the party.
While 105 BJP legislators were elected, 59 candidates lost the polls. The party’s tally was far below its own expectations. “We met the party candidates who lost the polls. Of the 59, as many as 55 candidates came a close second, many losing by just 800 to 1,000 votes. All of them maintained a positive outlook and have started working for the next round of local polls in their constituencies,” said Chandrakant Patil, BJP’s state unit chief. He also said the candidates have been told that they will find a “respectable role” in the next government and the party organisation. “[Devendra] Fadnavis also addressed these candidates and they’ve been told that only BJP will form the next government in Maharashtra,” he said.
BJP’s state executive meetings were held to begin an organisational rejig. The state unit will appoint new tehsil, district and state-level committees; district chiefs; and state president by December 15.
Several BJP heavyweights, such as former rural development minister, Pankaja Munde; former state water conservation minister, Ram Shinde; former state agriculture minister, Anil Bonde; former ministers of state Madan Yerawar, Bala Bhegade and Parinay Fuke lost the polls. Several of them, including Munde, stayed away from the meeting. “In such meetings, the reasons for the loss are not really analysed. The party knows that rebellion led to some of these losses,” said a former MLA, who lost the polls.
Several political heavyweights who defected just ahead of the elections, such as former Congress minister Harshvardhan Patil and former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Vaibhav Pichad also lost the elections.