MahaYuti stumps Maha Vikas Aghadi
Stunning a united Opposition that was confident of unseating the ruling alliance from power, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led MahaYuti on Saturday scored a historic victory over the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), by winning an astounding 233 seats out of the total 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly polls.
In a landslide win that even surprised the ruling alliance leaders, the BJP, which heads the MahaYuti, put up a best-ever performance in the Assembly polls by bagging as many as 133 seats out of the total 288 seats on its own, a superlative feat than is far better than its own earlier stupendous wins in the 2014 and 2019 Assembly polls when 122 and 105 seats respectively.
The BJP’s allies, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-headed NCP — that won 57 and 41 seats respectively, also contributed to the MahaYuti’s thumping victory. With 133 seats in its kitty, the ruling BJP has become a natural claimant for the Chief Minister’s post. Notwithstanding Eknath Shinde’s lobbying to retain the CM’s post, it is quite likely that the BJP’s central leadership will choose the current Dy CM as the new CM. The new CM will be sworn into office on Monday.
On the other hand, the Opposition MVA, comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar), put up a pathetic performance by winning a meagre 45 seats. While the Shiv Sena (UBT) secured 20 seats, the Congress and NCP (SP) won 15 and 10 seats respectively.
Such is the rout of the MVA in the polls that there will be no Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the State Assembly. Because, none of the MVA constituents, Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar), has won 10 per cent of the total 288 seats in the House to stake a claim for the LoP’s post.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar attributed a large share of the MahaYuti victory to its ‘Mukhya Mantri Ladki Bahin Yojana’ (Chief Minister’s Beloved Sister Scheme) which was announced in the State Budget 2024-25. Under the scheme, the MahaYuti government had doled out an assistance of Rs 1,500 per month to all women (age 21-65 years) across state. Launched in August this year, a total assistance of Rs 7,500 reached 2.34 crore women across the state during the last five months at the rate of Rs 1,500 per woman per month.
“I salute women across the state. The Mukhya Mantri Ladki Bahin Yojana’ proved to be a game-changer for us… Remember everyone wrote us off after the Lok Sabha polls. If the people, especially women across the state, have given us resounding victory, it is because of the development work and welfare schemes like the Ladki Bahin scheme, which helped us script an unprecedented win in the polls,” Shinde said.
One of the biggest takeaways from the polls that the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-headed NCP, which are off-shoots of the vertical splits that took place in the united parties in June 2022 and July 2023 respectively - have proved electorally that they are better parties than the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar-led NCP in terms of strength in the State Assembly.
Such is the MahaYuti victory that the ruling alliance has made gains in all the six regions of the state, including Mumbai. Of the 36 seats in Mumbai, the MahaYuti won 23 seats, as against 12 seats won by the MVA. In the neighbouring Thane and Konkan region, out of the 39 seats, the MahaYuti walked away 32 seats, while the MVA won mere four seats. In western Maharashtra — once considered the stronghold of the erstwhile Sharad Pawar-led NCP, the ruling grand alliance won 42 out of 58 seats, while the MVA won just four seats.
In Marathwada where the MVA had performed very well in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the MahaYuti won 36 out of the 46 seats while the MVA won a meagre two seats. In north Maharashtra, the ruling grand alliance walked away with 41 out of 47 seats, while the MVA won just three seats. In Vidarbha - a region on which the Congress was pinning its hopes, the MahaYuti performed exceedingly winning 48 out of the total 62 seats.
