Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CMs Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis during a press conference as the Mahayuti is set to form the government in the State, at Varsha Bungalow in Mumbai on November 23, 2024.
| Photo Credit: ANI
In an unprecedented electoral sweep which Maharashtra has not seen since the 1980s, the ruling Mahayuti has won 230 of the 288 seats in the State’s Assembly election, with the BJP emerging as the single largest party, winning 132 seats on its own.
The Mahayuti is slated to form the government within the next three days, with winning MLAs being asked to gather in Mumbai immediately. Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh is likely to be in Mumbai on Sunday (November 24, 2024) as the central observer of the party, a role he had played after the 2014 State election as well.
The Opposition Maha Vikas Agadi was completely routed, winning just 46 seats. The Maharashra Assembly is not likely to have any Leader of Opposition position this time, as none of the three MVA parties have been able to win even 10% of the total seats. Shiv Sena won the highest number of seats (20), followed by the Congress with 16, and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) with ten seats, all below the 29 seats mandated for the LoP position, as per the legislative rules.
No decision on CM yet
The current Assembly’s term ends on November 26. Outgoing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena MLAs held a preliminary meeting in Mumbai on Saturday (November 23, 2024) evening, giving their chief the right to take all decisions on government formation on the party’s behalf. Their final legislative meeting will be held on Sunday after all their winning MLAs reach Mumbai. “The leaders of all the three [Mahayuti] parties will take a call on the Chief Minister’s position. No decision has been taken as yet,” a senior BJP leader said. However, BJP sources indicated that the party will not easily give up its stake for the CM position this time.
Several Congress stalwarts including former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, eight term MLA Balasaheb Thorat, and party leader Yashomati Thakur were defeated in this election. The Pawar family battle for the Baramati seat was decisively won by Nationalist Congress Party chief Ajit Pawar with a lead of over one lakh votes against his nephew Yugendra Pawar.
BJP’s unprecedented strike rate
Mahayuti leaders credited their success to the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, outreach efforts towards smaller communities, internal coordination, higher women voters’ percentage, and the RSS factor.
The BJP’s strike rate is unprecedented in Maharashtra since the 1980s. It contested 148 seats and won 132 of them, thereby giving it a strike rate of 89%. Among its alliance partners, the Shiv Sena won 56 seats, while the NCP won 41 seats. The result seems to indicate that public opinion on the legacy battle between the two major regional parties in Maharashtra is in favour of Mr. Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Mr. Ajjit Pawar’s NCP after they split over two years ago.
Unbelievable: MVA leaders
The Opposition has raised questions about the results, with Mr. Uddhav Thackeray, Ramesh Chennithala and Sanjay Raut terming the results as ‘unbelievable’.
While the MVA’s dismal performance shocked its supporters, Congress State president Nana Patole won by a narrow margin, the Congress claimed although the Election Commission website has not yet been updated about this. NCP SP leader and Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Rohit Pawar won his seat, while Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray successfully retained the Worli constituency in Mumbai, though with a narrower margin, as compared to 2019.
This high-stakes election saw some victories and defeats by very narrow margins. The narrowest was the victory of the lone winning AIMIM candidate from Malegaon central — Mufti Mohammad Ismail Abdul Khalique — who won by a margin of just 162 votes.
Published – November 23, 2024 10:37 pm IST
