Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday succumbed to Opposition pressure and forced cabinet minister and influential NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) leader Dhananjay Munde to resign following an outcry over his alleged involvement in the murder of a sarpanch in Beed district.

Munde, a key OBC leader who held the food, civil supplies and consumer protection portfolio, sent his resignation to Fadnavis on Tuesday.

The resignation was seen as the first major blow to the Mahayuti government less than two months after it was sworn in following a landslide victory that appeared to have decimated the Opposition.

Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh’s murder on December 9 had rocked Maharashtra four days after BJP’s Fadnavis took oath as chief minister along with his two deputies — Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena and Ajit of the NCP.

For nearly three months, the new government had rejected demands for Munde’s resignation even after the minister’s aide, Walmik Karad, was named as an accused in the multi-crore extortion-related murder.

Gory pictures of the sarpanch’s torture and murder surfaced on Monday, leading to a fresh outcry that led to Munde’s resignation. Fadnavis held a long closed-door meeting with Ajit and put pressure on him to get his minister to resign, stressing that his continuation had become untenable, sources said.

The resignation gave ammunition to the Opposition to target the Mahayuti government. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray demanded the dismissal of the government and imposition of President’s rule in the state, claiming the breakdown of law and order.

“Resignation is not enough. The government should be dismissed,” Thackeray said. “The law-and-order situation has been deteriorating…. Who will come to invest in Maharashtra?” he said, citing another incident of a 26-year-old girl being raped in a state transport bus in Pune.

Congress leader Nana Patole said: “Had the CM taken a suo motu decision immediately, we would have hailed his leadership. But this is clearly an afterthought, bowing to pressure from the Opposition and the people.”

Munde’s resignation came amid a strain in Fadnavis’s relations with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, the second-largest Mahayuti partner. Fadnavis has been scrapping decisions taken by Shinde and ordering departmental inquiries citing possible corruption. This had recently prompted Shinde to issue a warning, saying he should not be taken “lightly”.

Amid the rift, Fadnavis was seen maintaining warm relations with his other ally, Ajit, given his importance in ensuring the stability of the government if Shinde pulls out. However, the outcry over the sarpanch’s murder has now claimed a minister from Ajit’s party.

Munde is the nephew of the late Gopinath Munde, an OBC stalwart of the BJP. In 2013, Munde had resigned from the BJP after falling out with his cousin Pankaja Munde and joined the NCP.

The caste angle in the murder of the sarpanch has also landed the BJP and Fadnavis in a spot. Most of the accused in the murder of the sarpanch belonging to the Maratha caste are OBCs, a strong support base of the BJP.

The state has been witness to a Maratha-OBC tussle over reservations for several years and the murder has now widened the fault lines. Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil has attributed the sarpanch’s murder to this tussle.

Fadnavis is being seen as a villain by the Marathas as they hold him responsible for jettisoning their demand for quota under the OBC category.