Devendra Fadnavis resigns as Maharashtra CM

Mumbai: Devendra Fadnavis on Friday resigned as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.  He met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari  at Raj Bhawan here to submit his resignation papers.

The entire Council of Ministers was also present on the occasion.

Soon after submitting his resignation,  Fadnavis addressed a press conference and said that he was grateful to the electorate and his colleagues for the governance made possible in the first term of the government under him.

However, the former Chief Minister slammed the Shiv Sena and its chief Uddhav Thackeray for the post-poll political crisis in the state.

“Balasaheb Thackeray is respected by all of us, infact we even never said anything against Uddhav ji Thackeray,but in past 5 years and especially last 10 days the kind of statements which were made against our top leadership including Modi ji, were not tolerable,” Fadnavis was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.

“I again want to make it clear that it was never decided that for 2.5 years each the CM post will be shared. There was never a decision on this issue. Even Amit Shah ji and Nitin Gadkari ji said this was never decided, ” said Fadnavis.

“Uddhav Thackeray on the day of results made it clear that they have their options open and this was a shock for us,” he added.

In the 288 member assembly, BJP has emerged as the single-largest party with 105 seats while its partner Shiv Sena has 56 seats.

Both the parties failed to reach an agreement over power sharing as BJP rejected Shiv Sena’s demand of Chief Minister’s post for 2 and a half year each.

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