Failing to live up to the hype and hoopla created by it in the run-up to the election that it would post a thumping electoral victory, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance on Thursday managed to retain power in Maharashtra by either winning or leading in 160 seats out of the total 288 seats in the State Assembly polls.
From a combined tally of 185 seats that the BJP and Shiv Sena had won when they contested the 2014 polls separately, the ruling saffron alliance partners were to set end up with a winning tally of a maximum of 160 seats, which is 25 seats fewer than the two parties had won in the previous Assembly polls.
On its own, the ruling BJP was poised to win a maximum of 104 seats out of the total 164 seats it had contested, while the Shiv Sena was expected a maximum of 56 seats out of the total 124 seats it had contested in the polls.
From the Opposition, the NCP — which fared relatively better than it was expected thanks to mainly to the extensive campaigning done by its founder-president Sharad Pawar — had either won or was leading in 54 seats out of the 121 seats it contested in the polls, while its senior ally Congress was set to end up with a winning tally 45 seats in the polls.
Among the smaller parties and independents, the Bahujan Vikash Aghadi (BVA) had won one seat and was leading in two seats, while the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen bagged two seats.
The Prahar Janshakti Party won 2 seats, while Krantikari Shetkari Party, Samajwadi Party and Swabhimani Shetkari Party bagged one seat each. Among the independents five emerged victorious, while at least eight independents were heading to victory.
As was expected, the rebels belonging to both the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena played a spoilsport for the two parties in the polls. Admitting that the presence of rebels in the fray had affected both the saffron alliance partners, a senior BJP leader said in the evening that he was in touch with at least 15 winning rebels.
On his part, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis sought to play down relatively unimpressive performance of the BJP in the polls. “On the contrary to the perception sought to be created, our strike rate is much better what it was in the 2014 Assembly. At that time, BJP had contested 260 seats and won 122 seats which was 47 per cent strike rate. In this election, we contested 164 seats and won 103 seats which is 70 per cent strike rate,” Fadnavis said.
The strike rate projected by Fadnavis notwithstanding, the BJP leaders, including BJP national president Amit Shah and the chief minister himself, had gone to town saying that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance would win more 220 seats in the State Assembly. The premise was based on the fact that the saffron alliance partners had established leads in 227 Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha polls, which saw the BJP, Shiv Sena and their ally win 42 out of 48 seats.
Interestingly, in the current Assembly polls, the BJP secured 25.69 per cent of total votes polled, while the Shiv Sena mustered 16.50 per cent votes. The younger Opposition party NCP polled higher percentage (16.72 per cent votes), while the Sonai Gandhi-led party secured 15.76 per cent votes.
In what came as embarrassment for the ruling saffron alliance, at least eight BJP-Sena Ministers in the Devendra Fadnavis Government bit electoral dust.
The biggest jolt that the BJP-led Government suffered was the defeat of late senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s daughter and State Minister Pankaja Munde who was trounced by her estranged cousin and NCP’s Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde in Parli constituency of Beed district in Marathwada.
The BJP’s other losing ministers include: Anil Bonde from Morshi (Amravati), Ram Shinde who was defeated by NCP President Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Rohit Pawar in his maiden election from Karjat-Jamkhed (Ahmednagar), Sanjay ‘Bala’ Bhegade from Maval (Pune), and Parinay Fuke from Sakoli (Nagpur) who was trounced by Congress leader from eastern Maharashtra Nana Patole.
The Shiv Sena ministers who were defeated in the polls are: Vijaybapu Shivtare from Purandar (Pune) and Arjun Khotkar from Jalna and Jaydatta Kshirsagar from Beed.
Most of these ministers, including Pankaja, had faced allegations of involvement in scams made by the Opposition parties in the past five years.
The major victors in the Assembly polls were: Devendra Fadnavis (BJP, Nagpur South West), Aditya Thackeray (Shiv Sena, Worli), Ajit Pawar (NCP, Baramati), Prithviraj Chavan (Congress Karad South), and Ashok Chavan (Congress, Bhokar), Santosh Raosaheb Danve (BJP, Bhokardan), Ganesh Naik (BJP, Airoli), Dilip Walse Patil (NCP, Ambegaon) and Chandrakant Patil (BJP, Kothurd).
Amit Deshmukh and Dhiraj Deshmukh, sons of late Chief Minister Vilarasrao Deshmukh, were elected on a Congress ticket from Latur city and Latur rural constituencies respectively.
While Amit was elected for the third time from Latur city constituency, Dhiraj — making his debut — won the polls from Latur rural by a margin of 1,18,000 voters – that too over an interesting rival 'None Of The Above' option.
Dhiraj Deshmukh secured around 1,31,000 votes, while 26,800 votes were cast for NOTA. Shiv Sena’s Sachin Deshmukh, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s Arjun Waghamare, and 12 other candidates forfeited their election deposits.
Interestingly, 18 of the 35 sitting MLAs and Congress-NCP leaders who had switched over either the BJP or the Shiv Sena were defeated in the polls.