BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis resigned as the chief minister of Maharashtra on Friday amid a political deadlock between the BJP and Shiv Sena over the formation of government in the state. The BJP had emerged as thesingle-largest party by winning 105 seats while Shiv Sena got 56 in the288-member state assembly. However, it could not stake claim to form the new government as an aggressive Shiv Sena decided to stay away from its alliancepartner over its demand of the 50-50 formula, rotational chief ministership fora term of two-and-a-half-years each.

Earlier, Fadnavis met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari andsubmitted his resignation.

Addressing media persons, Fadnavis said, "Myresignation has been accepted by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. We ran a cleangovt in Maharashtra and tackled several problems together. The state govt stoodby farmers during drought. I thank PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah for letting megovern Maharashtra." He also thanked the people of Maharashtra forstanding by him for the last five years. "We fought the assembly electionin alliance with Shiv Sena and won 160 seats of which the BJP emerged as thesingle largest party with 105 MLAs. Our strike rate has been better as we won70 per cent of the seats we contested," said Fadnavis