Devendra Fadnavis slams rebels for BJP’s below-par tally

Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis Thursday squarely blamed rebel candidates for the Bharatiya Janata Party not getting the expected results in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

He said that though the party garnered fewer seats this time, the BJP improved its strike rate in comparison with the 2014 polls.

“The BJP has won 70 per cent of the seats it contested in the elections,” Mr Fadnavis said.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP state headquarters, Mr Fadnavis thanked the people of Maharashtra for giving a “clear and decisive mandate” to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance.

“This time, we (the BJP) contested 150 seats and our allies 14 and as per the trends, we are likely to win 105 seats. Our strike rate was 47 per cent last time whereas it is 70 per cent now,” he said.

“I thank the people of Maharashtra for giving a clear mandate to the ‘Mahayuti’ (grand alliance). No doubt, the next government will be ours,” he said. It is time to celebrate and not analyse the results. But if we look at them, the BJP contested 260 seats of which it won 122 in 2014. This time, we have secured 26 to 26.6 per cent votes across 164 seats (150 contested by the BJP and 14 by its allies)," he added.

The chief minister admitted that the BJP suffered a jolt in the state elections due to rebellion by leaders of some of its own allies.

However, 15 rebels, he claimed, were in touch with him to join the ruling alliance.  

“Fifteen rebel candidates who have won the election, have contacted me and they are going to join the Mahayuti,” Mr Fadnavis said.

The remaining rebel winners will also join the Mahayuti as most of them are originally from the BJP-Sena, he added.

Mr Fadnavis expressed shock at the defeat of party candidates Udayanraje Bhosale in the Satara bypoll and minister Pankaja Munde from the Parli Assembly seat.

Replying to a query, he said Ms Munde’s defeat from Parli despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally there came as a “shock” for the ruling party.

“You can see it the other way too: The Prime Minister addressed rallies in Mumbai and all our candidates got elected. We won in Nashik, too, after his rally. But we will analyse Ms Munde's defeat," the chief minister said.

Mr Fadnavis defeated his nearest rival, Congress’ Ashish Deshmukh by a margin of 49,344 votes from the Nagpur South West constituency, election officials said on Thursday.

Mr Fadnavis won from this constituency for the third time, but with a reduced margin. The chief minister  had won from the seat by 58,942 votes in the 2014 polls.