MVA leaders misled people through 'Shakuni neeti' to win polls: Maharashtra BJP chief

Nagpur: Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Thursday claimed the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders through their "Shakuni neeti" misled and confused the people of the state to win the Lok Sabha elections.

But this will not have an impact on the upcoming elections and the Bharatiya Janata Party will win on its development agenda, he said, adding the BJP and its allies will introspect why they lost seats in the state.

Bawankule was speaking to reporters at the Nagpur airport on the Lok Sabha poll outcome.

"The MVA won through 'Shakuni neeti' (Machiavellian policy), but this election result would not have an impact on the upcoming polls and people will vote in the name of development and not casteism," the BJP leader said.

The Maharashtra assembly polls are due later this year.

On Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis offering to quit the post after the BJP’s Lok Sabha tally came down in Maharashtra, Bawankule said the BJP's core group, all the MLAs, MPs, leaders and workers have requested Fadnavis to continue as the state leader and not take such a decision.

He said said the BJP MPs, state presidents and other leaders have been invited for an important parliamentary board meeting in Delhi on Friday.

The MVA, comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT)-led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Sharad Pawar-headed NCP (SP), on Tuesday won 30 out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.

The ruling Mahayuti, which includes the BJP, Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the NCP headed by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, won 17 seats.

The BJP’s Lok Sabha tally came down from 23 to 9 in the state.

Bawankule claimed the MVA leaders misled the backward people by saying the Constitution is in danger and will be changed by the BJP.

A "false narrative" was spread among tribals that their rights would be taken away by BJP, he said.

The Maratha community was also misled by telling it that the BJP was against reservation to them, he said.

Politics of caste and confusion won and the politics of development initiated by BJP had to face a narrow defeat, Bawankule said.

"But the BJP, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had asked for votes for a developed Bharat, and the opposition INDIA alliance and MVA indulged in caste-based politics, which will not last much and people will understand the lies being spread by the INDIA alliance," he said.

On if the Mahayuti's seat-sharing decision was one of the reasons for its poor performance in Maharashtra, Bawankule said the BJP will introspect why it lost seats.

Similarly, CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar will introspect why they lost seats, he said.

"We will introspect on the reasons and make course correction. However, one thing is certain that the MVA, through its 'Shakuni neeti' misled and confused the voters, it did not speak about development and indulged in caste-based politics in the campaign," he claimed.