Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday took “full responsibility” for the poor performance of his faction of the Nationalist Congress Party in the Lok Sabha elections, PTI reported.
Results of the 2024 polls, declared on Tuesday, showed that the Bharatiya Janata Party along with its allies – Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party – won 17 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra. Of the total, the deputy chief minister’s group won only one seat.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), won 30 seats.
On Thursday, Ajit Pawar rejected speculation that a few of his party MLAs were planning to defect to Sharad Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party.
“I have always had the support of the people,” he said during a press conference after a meeting with his party legislators. “My MLAs, MLCs have assured me they will always stand by me.”
On a question about his wife Sunetra Pawar’s defeat from the Baramati Lok Sabha seat to sitting MP and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule, Ajit Pawar said that the result was “surprising since I always had the support of the people there”.
Sule won in Baramati with over 7.3 lakh votes, while Sunetra Pawar was able to secure around 5.7 lakh votes.
A day earlier, Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Amol Mitkari claimed that internal sabotage and non-cooperation from its allies led to its defeat from the Baramati and Shirur Lok Sabha seats, PTI reported.
However, Ajit Pawar on Thursday noted that Mitkari received the “wrong briefing”.
The deputy chief minister added: “We fell short and I take full responsibility.”
Ajit Pawar also claimed that reasons for his party’s poor performance included Muslims moving away from the ruling alliance and the Opposition’s allegations that the ruling government would change the Constitution if it won by a large majority. This alienated the Dalits and backward classes, he said.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, BJP leaders had stirred controversy with their comments about amending the Constitution.
On March 9, BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde called on voters to give a two-thirds majority to his party in the Lok Sabha to enable amendments to the Constitution and undo the “unnecessary laws introduced to subjugate the Hindu community”. BJP leader Jyoti Mirdha on March 30 also said that the party needed an overwhelming majority in Parliament to change the Constitution.
As Scroll found in ground reports, the BJP in several places struggled to counter the Opposition narrative that it wanted to change the Constitution and do away with reservations.
Ajit Pawar on Thursday said that the months-long Maratha agitation for reservations also had a role to play in the setback.
His remarks came amid BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday offering to resign as the deputy chief minister and accepting responsibility for the setback his party had suffered in the state.
In July last year, Ajit Pawar, along with several party MLAs, joined Maharashtra’s coalition government comprising the BJP and the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The move had led to a split in the Nationalist Congress Party, with one faction supporting Sharad Pawar and the other backing Ajit Pawar.
Soon after, Ajit Pawar was named the deputy chief minister of the state.
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