Ramdas Athawale states RPI's demands amid Shiv Sena-BJP '50-50'

Union Minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) chief Ramdas Athawale on Friday has demanded one Cabinet and one State minister berth in the State government. He also stated that his party is also willing to contest in the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections. The RPI has contested the Maharashtra Assembly elections in an alliance with BJP and Shiv Sena.

Speaking to the media, Athawale said, "We demand one cabinet and one State minister berth in Maharashtra government. Amit Shah will visit Mumbai to hold discussions with Uddhav Thackeray on who all will be made Ministers in the State cabinet." 

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Earlier on Thursday, speaking to Republic TV, Ramdas Athawale said that economic slowdown, GST, unemployment are not the reasons for NDA to not cross 200 in early trends. He said that even if the NDA has gotten a slight blow, it will give a befitting response to the Opposition when the right time comes. 

"When questioned if the NDA alliance got a sudden blow with the ongoing counting, Athawale, in a poetic response said, "Hume zaroor laga hai hai thoda jhakta, hum aage denge virodhi ko fatka." (We surely got a bit of a blow, but we'll retaliate with a hit.)

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Poll results in Maharashtra 

The results for 288 Assembly constituencies of Maharashtra were declared on Thursday with the saffron alliance winning a combined tally of 161 (BJP- 105, Sena -56) to award CM Devendra Fadnavis a second term. However, the comeback of the 'Maha- Agadhi' alliance (NCP-Congress) took the Mahayuti by surprise as the NCP bagged 54 seats while the languishing Congress too bagged 44 seats. Though the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance will form the next government, it was handed a diminished mandate compared to 2014 where it won 185 seats.

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Maharashtra election overview

The opposition tried to corner the BJP government on the handling of the economy with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blaming the ruling party for the economic slowdown, unemployment, highlighting issues like "failure" of demonetisation and GST rollout. The BJP, on the other hand, is seeking a second straight term under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra. Among other parties, Raj Thackeray's MNS fielded 101 candidates, the CPI 16, the CPM 8. The BSP fielded candidates in 262 constituencies. A total of 1400 Independents were also in the poll arena.

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(With ANI inputs)