Days after one of his close associates was taken into custody in relation to the December 2024 murder of a local sarpanch in Beed district, Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde resigned on Tuesday and handed his resignation to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Munde, broke his silence shortly after his resignation to say that he had also resigned for health reasons and to denounce the heinous murder of Massajog’s village headman. Taking to X, Munde said, “My firm demand from the first day is that the accused in the brutal murder of the late Santosh Deshmukh of Massajog in Beed district should be given the strictest punishment. Seeing the photos that came to light yesterday, I was deeply distressed.”
Earlier in the day, Munde handed Devendra Fadnavis a formal letter of resignation, which has since been forwarded to the Maharashtra Governor for approval. Speaking to reporters from the Maharashtra Assembly media stand, Fadnavis stated that he had transferred the resignation of the NCP minister to Governor CP Radhakrishnan after accepting it.
As images of the horrific murder of Massajog Sarpanch from the Beed district began making the rounds on social media, a number of opposition lawmakers spoke out against Munde during the Maharashtra Assembly’s current Budget session, calling for his resignation.
Aaditya Thackeray, an MLA for the Shiv Sena (Uddhav group), stated after Munde’s departure that the Fadnavis administration should be overthrown because a simple resignation was insufficient. “Resignation alone won’t cut it… The regime ought to be overthrown. Maharashtra’s law and order situation has gotten worse; rapes and murders are happening, and nobody is safe in this state. Photos of the suspects and their ruthless murder of Santosh Deshmukh have been shown to us. Public hanging of the accused is necessary, according to Aaditya Thackeray.
