Kolhapur, Jun 11 (Reporter) Late candidate announcement is a prime factor for the poor performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party and other partners in Maharashtra's ruling Mahayuti (grand alliance) in the recent Lok Sabha poll, a state minister and senior BJP leader said on Tuesday. "BJP and our other alliance partners of Mahayuti failed to announce their candidates in time. The announcement came late in several constituencies. That is why the Mahayuti candidates were defeated in these constituencies and we failed to get more seats," state Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil said at a media conference here. The Mahayuti could win only 17 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra in the parliamentary polls. While the BJP got nine seats, the Shiv Sena won seven, and Ajit Pawar's NCP picked up only one seat. On the other hand, the Congress-led Mhavikas Aghadi secured a whopping 30 seats "We have learned many things from the election, and things will be rectified this time," he said. Patil, however, asked Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray to got for some seld-introspection ss while he campaigned hard, his party captured only nine sats, while the Congress and NCP (SCP) took full advantage and raised their tally in the election. In response to a query from a reporter on newspaper reports that BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde could become the party's National President as the incumbent J P Nadda has joined the Union Cabinet, Patil said "We will be happy if he is made the party president. He is an accomplished person. However, it is for our central leadership to take the decision". Tawde, who hails from Maharashtra, has served as a minister in the state cabinet in the past. On Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagvat's statement that since the elections were over, every political party should be concerned with the peoples' issues, Patil said "He is everyone's parent. If anything happens in te house, he has the right to speak on it". Patil claimed the entire world was shocked at the BJP getting fewer seats nationally than was predicted earlier, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rated as one of he prominent world leaders The BJP could manage only 240 seats, way short of the magic number of 272, and now has to depend on the crutches of parties like the Telugu Desam and the Janata Dal (United). This came despite Modi and the BJP coining the slogan "ab ki baar, charso paar" (this time we'll win over 400 seats). Patil said over the past few days there have been attempts to wean away BJP's allies, but now the BJP government has been formed, and it does not seem that the goverment will be in trouble in the future...////...