Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis resigned on November 26, barely 80 hours after taking oath for the second time , the move necessitated by his deputy Ajit Pawar’s resignation citing “personal reasons”.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Mr. Fadnavis said his Mr. Ajit Pawar had tendered his resignation earlier in the day.
“After Mr. Pawar’s resignation we don’t have the majority. We will not do any horse-trading,” Mr. Fadnavis said, adding that he would be meeting Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari to submit his resignation.
Blaming the Shiv Sena again for playing the “number game”, Mr. Fadnavis reiterated that there had been no agreement with the BJP’s former ally on the Chief Minister’s post.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday.
“The Assembly results had given a clear mandate to BJP with 105 seats. This mandate was ours. We had won in 70% of the seats contested as compared to Sena which had won only 45% of the seats it contested,” he said.
Mr. Fadnavis said he formed the government only after NCP leader Ajit Pawar was willing to join hands with the BJP. “We believed that the entire NCP was coming with us,” he said.
We had formed the government only after the whole of the NCP came to us in the form of letters submitted to us, he added.
Mr. Fadnavis said the BJP will now sit in the Opposition. He also claimed the “only agenda” of the Sena-NCP-Congress combine was the lust of power.
“The Common Minimum Programme was put together by the three parties just to keep the BJP out of power,” he said, adding that the government will bury under its own complications.
Mr. Fadnavis handed over his resignation to Governor B.S. Koshyari in the afternoon. “Fadnavis called on the governor and tendered his resignation,” said a statement from Raj Bhavan.
