"Casteist politics emerged victorious in Maharashtra": State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule

Nagpur: Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Thursday said that casteist politics which created "confusion" among the public in the state emerged victorious in Lok Sabha polls while BJP's development politics suffered defeat.
Addressing reporters in Nagpur, Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, "Caste politics prevailed here. We focused on developmental politics and had to suffer defeat in some places. .We asked for votes for 'Viksit Bharat'. INDIA alliance and Maha Vikas Aghadi did caste-based politics. In some days, people will know that INDIA alliance leaders asked for votes by lying. The public can get misled once but not again and again. Politics of development can take India and Maharashtra ahead."
Coming out in support of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who offered to resign from his position yesterday, Bawankule said that the BJP's poor show in Maharashtra is a collective responsibility of the the leadership in state.
"Our central leaders know that this is not only the fault of Devendra Fadnavis. It is a collective responsibility. Here factors such as caste and religion played an important role," he said.
In Maharashtra, the BJP-led NDA alliance has only secured 17 seats while the INDIA alliance has secured a major 30 seats in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saw a massive decline in its seat share in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, state deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday took the responsibility for party's abysmal performance and urged the top leadership to relieve him of ministerial duties so that he could work for the party.
"Whatever loss we suffered in the LS polls in Maharashtra, I take full responsibility for it. Therefore, I urge the top leadership to relieve me of my ministerial duties for I need to work for the party and contribute my time to the preparations of the state assembly polls", Fadnavis said while addressing the media in Maharashtra's Mumbai.
The BJP victory tally was much lower than its 2019 tally of 303 and the 282 seats it had won in 2014. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong growth, winning 99 seats compared to 52 that it had won in 2019 and 44 seats in 2014. The INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition, and defying all predictions from exit polls.