NCP's demand for resignation of Fadnavis 'ridiculous': BJP

The BJP Thursday rejected the NCPs demand for the resignation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, whose election in 2014 has been challenged in the Supreme Court, and said it shows the opposition party's "intellectual bankruptcy".

Earlier in the day, the apex court issued notice to Fadnavis on a plea seeking annulment of his election to the state assembly for alleged non-disclosure of pending criminal cases against him in his nomination papers.

The NCP quickly moved to demand the resignation of Fadnavis, elected to the assembly from Nagpur South West constituency.

"He has lost the moral right to stay on the chief minister's post. We demand he immediately step down from his post," NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said.

However, Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye rejected the demand of the Sharad Pawar-led party.

"The proposed litigation in the Supreme Court is at primary stage and based on some technical points. The NCP, however, has still made a demand of resignation (of Fadnavis), which demonstrates its intellectual bankruptcy," he said.

He said in the past a similar plea against the chief minister was dismissed by the Bombay High Court after Fadnavis' lawyers filed satisfactory replies.

"The HC had also initiated process of treating the litigation as a contempt of court. The Bombay High Court had called such a litigation mischievous," Upadhye said.

"When the same litigators approached the Supreme Court, todays process was of whether or not to accept such litigation in the top court of the country," he said.

Fadnavis, at the time of filing his affidavit ahead of the assembly elections in October 2014, had given a detailed information of cases pending against him, Upadhye said.

The BJP spokesperson said, "The NCP had not removed one of its state ministers till arrest warrants were issued against him. Such a party is capitalising on a basic court notice and engaging in theatrics."