Enthused by the saffron alliance’s best-ever performance that contributed to the “Maha-Yuti” winning a staggering 42 seats out of total 48 lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, the Opposition BJP on Saturday mounted pressure on the DF Government to resign from office accepting “moral responsibility” for its humiliating electoral debacle and seek a fresh mandate from the people in the State ahead of the October 2014 Assembly polls.
In a reiteration of a similar demand made by himself and leader of the Opposition in the State legislative Council Vinod Tawde on Friday, Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis that since the people had totally rejected the Congress-NCP alliance in the lS polls, the ruling Democratic Front (DF) was “morally” obligated to go in for early State Assembly polls.
Addressing a news conference at the State party headquarters in South Mumbai, Fadnavis said: “The people in the State have given a clear mandate in favour BJP-led Maha-Yuti, the Congress-NCP alliance has no moral right to continue in power. The DF should bow out of the office forthwith and seek a fresh mandate from the people”.
Fadnavis said that people from all sections of the society had supported the grand Opposition alliance in the lok Sabha polls. “We are confident that the people in the State would give us a similar decisive mandate to us in the forthcoming Assembly polls as well," he said.
Meanwhile, the polling percentages – officially notified by the Election Commission – revealed that the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Raju Shetty-led Swambhimani Paksha, which are the three major constituents of the five-party “Maha-Yuti” had collectively polled 50.1 per cent votes in the lS polls. Of the total votes polled by the three parties, the BJP accounted for 25.3 per cent, while the Sena and the Raju Shetty party polled 20.6 per cent and 2.2 votes respectively.
As against the votes polled by the three “Maha-Yuti” constituents, the Congress polled the lowest-ever 18.1 per cent votes, while its alliance partner NCP secured 16 per cent votes. Together, the DF partners polled 34.1 per cent votes, which is a record 16.1 per cent difference.In terms of number of seats won by the various parties in the current polls, the BJP posted its highest-ever winning tally of 23, while Sena won 18 and Swabhimani Paksha walked away with one seat, On the other hand, the Congress won a meager two seats, while the NCP managed to bag four seats.
In the 2009 lok Sabha polls, the ruling Congress-NCP alliance had polled 38.89 per cent votes, while the BJP-Sena combine secured 35.17 per cent votes – which accounted for a difference of 3.72 per cent. The Congress-NCP alliance had then secured 25 seats, while BJP-Shiv Sena combine had won 20 seats.