On a day when Maharashtra's Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan accepted moral responsibility for the ruling Congress' lok Sabha poll debacle in Maharashtra, NCP president Sharad Pawar rejected the Opposition's clamour for the dismissal of the DF Government in Maharashtra.
Hours after leader of the Opposition in the State legislation Council Vinod Tawde of the BJP demanded the resignation of Chavan and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, the NCP chief dismissed the Opposition's clamour for the dismissal of the DF government by dubbing it as "meaningless"
"Demand for dismissal of Cong-NCP Govt in Maharashtra is meaningless as these polls were for lok Sabha. Will continue to work together…INC, NCP & other constituents of UPA will have to play a role of responsible opposition in the country which we will play," Sharad Pawar tweeted.
Sr Pawar went onto congratulate BJP's Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi for the NDA's victory. "Numbers that NDA got will ensure stability which is positive side of these polls," he tweeted.In a statement issued earlier in the day, Chavan accepted the "moral responsibility" for the Congress' defeat in the polls.
"The outcome of 16th lok Sabha elections in the state unexpected. We humbly accept the verdict of the people. Although the UPA launched many pro-people programmes, the Congress party did not get success as expected," Chavan said.
"I accept the moral responsibility of party's performance in the state. I thank all the voters who voted for the Congress-NCP alliance candidates. I congratulate Narendra Modi for his party's victory and wish him all the success," the chief minister said.
On his part, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar also congratulated Modi for the BJP-led NDA's victory in the polls. "We have full faith in democracy and we respect the verdict. We congratulate Narendra Modi for the victory," the DCM said.
In a related development, senior Maharashtra minister Narayan Rane resigned from his post in the wake of his son and sitting Congress MP Nilesh Rane's defeat in lok Sabha polls in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency.
Shortly after Nilesh suffered defeat at the hands of the Shiv Sena's Vinayak Raut by a margin of 1,50,051 votes, Sr Rane forwarded his resignation to the chief minister, accepting his moral responsibility for his son's electoral debacle.
However, MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre, while confirming that Sr Rane had indeed submitted his papers, said that the senior Congress minister's resignation would not be accepted.