Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday extracted a sweet revenge against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies for splitting their parent parties during the last two years, as the Congress-led Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) outperformed the BJP-led MahaYuti by bagging as many as 28 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, as against 19 seats won by the ruling alliance.
The Congress led the way by walking away with 12 LS seats, while the Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) — riding an undercurrent of sympathy triggered by the manner in which the unified Shiv Sena and NCP were split in June 2022 and July 2023 respectively — won 10 seats and 7 seats respectively.
In fact, the MVA's effective winning strength has gone up to 30 seats, as the lone Independent in the poll fray - late Chief Minister and veteran leader Vasantdada Patil's grandson Vishal Prakashbapu Patil who won from Sangli constituency in western Maharashtra, will in likelihood support the Congress-led Opposition.
On the other hand, the ruling MahaYuti - comprising the BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-headed NCP --- miserably failed to get its act together, a thing that can be evidenced from the fact as it managed to 11 LS seats as against 23 seats it had won in the 2019 polls while its allies Shinde-led Sena and NCP (Ajit Pawar) won seven seats and one respectively.
This was despite the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who was the chief campaigner -- addressed as many as eight rallies and held one road show in various parts of the State.
It is a vindication of sorts for both Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar. By bagging 10 seats, Uddhav has not only strengthened his divided party set up post the June 2022 split but has readied his party for the crucial Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.
With seven LS seats in his party's kitty, eight-three-year-old Sharad Pawar has proved that he cannot be written off from politics so easily. He had a tough time rebuilding his party, after an unprecedented fued out within his family that saw his nephew Ajit Pawar rebel against him and join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government in July 2023.
Sr Pawar proved yet again that his writ runs in his home turf of Baramati, when his daughter and three-term MP Supriya Sule defeated deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar in Lok Sabha polls.
The ruling MahaYuti's relatively poor performance in the 2024 LS polls has come as a major setback for the ruling alliance led chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly polls.
In a feat of sorts, the Opposition MVA walked away with four of six seats in the country's commercial capital -Mumbai north-central, Mumbai north-east, Mumbai south and Mumbai south-central, while the ruling MahaYuti bagged the3 Mumbai north-east and Mumbai north-west seats.
A relatively better performance by the rival Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray notwithstanding, chief minister Eknath Shinde has acquitted himself well, given that his party won seven out of the total 15 seats it contested. On the personal front, Shinde's son Dr Shrikant Shinde -who was seeking election to Lok Sabha for the third consecutive term - scored a comfortable victory in Kalyan constituency, while his close supporter Naresh Mhaske won handsomely in his home constituency of Thane.
Prominent among the winners in the LS polls across the state were: Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari ( Nagpur), Piyush Goyal ( Mumbai North), former chief minister and ex-Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's daughter Praniti Shinde ( Solapur), scions of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Chhatrapati Shrimant Shahu Maharaj ( of the Congress from Kolhapur), Shrimant Udyanraje Bhosale ( of the BJP from Satara), late BJP leader Gopinath Munde's daughter Pankaja Munde (Beed), NCP (Ajit Pawar) state president Sunil Tatkare.
In Mumbai north-central, Prof Varsha Eknath Gaikwad of the defeated BJP's Adv. Ujjwal Nikam. In Mumbai North East, Sena (UBT)'s Sanjay D. Patil trounced BJP's Mihir C. Kotecha, while in Mumbai North West, Shiv Sena's Ravindra D. Waikar vanquished Sena (UBT)'s Amol G. Kirtikar. In Mumbai south, Sena (UBT)'s Arvind Sawant defeated Shiv Sena's Yamini Y. Jadhav, while in Mumbai South Central Sena (UBT)'s Anil Y. Desai trounced Shiv Sena's 2-time sitting MP Rahul R. Shewale.
In Bhiwandi, NCP (SP)'s Suresh G. Mhatre alias Balyamama trounced Union Minister and sitting 2-time MP Kapil M. Patil of the BJP, while in Ahmednagar: NCP (SP)'s candidate Nilesh D. Lanke has defeated sitting BJP MP Dr. Sujay Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil. In Amravati: Congress' Balwant B. Wankhade defeated BJP's sitting MP Navneet R. Rana. In Shirur: NCP (SP)'s sitting MP Dr. Amol R. Kolhe defeated NCP's two-time MP Shivajirao A. Patil.
In the tribal Nandurbar: Adv. Gowaal K. Padavi of the Congress defeated BJP's sitting two-time MP Dr Heena V Gavit. In Nashik Prakash R Waje of the Sena (UBT) trounced Shiv Sena's sitting MP Hemant T Godse. While in Osmanabad, Sena (UBT)'s Omprakash B. Raje-Nimbalkar handed defeat to NCP's Archana R Patil.
