Today in Politics: Maharashtra BJP leaders to meet Amit Shah, what’s next for Devendra Fadnavis?

For the BJP, apart from Uttar Pradesh, its performance in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections is likely to be as big a disappointment. While the party’s tally plummeted from 23 to nine, its allies did not fare much better either as the Shiv Sena won seven and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Ajit Pawar only one.

But before the party gets down to the brass tacks and figures out how it can course-correct, it has to decide a far more important issue on which may hinge how the coming months in the run-up to the all-important Assembly elections turn out.

Should it allow Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis to step down as Deputy Chief Minister and return to the party organisation? For Fadnavis, who came up the RSS ranks before switching to the party, it may prove to be an opportunity to quietly put in the hours before the state elections and answer his detractors within the party and outside. But not having one of its most experienced faces in the government can bring its own set of problems.

On Tuesday, the Maharashtra BJP’s core committee will meet Amit Shah to reflect on the issues at hand, including Fadnavis’ proposal to move back to organisational work. “Apart from discussing the roles of individuals, the core committee will draw the plans for the Assembly polls,” one of the panel’s members told Shubhangi Khapre on the condition of anonymity. Apart from Shah, Fadnavis and state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Cabinet ministers Chandrakant Patil and Sudhir Mungantiwar, Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav are expected to attend the meeting. Yadav was appointed the BJP’s election in-charge for Maharashtra on Monday.

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