The BJP on Sunday evening appeared poised to form the next Government in Maharashtra in the coming days, after it emerged as the single-largest party in a hung house thrown up by Wednesday’s Assembly polls.
Falling short of its own expectations and projections made by a couple of exit polls that it would muster a majority of 145 seats in a 288-member House, the BJP ended up with a final tally of 122 seats of its own and one more brought into its kitty by its ally Mahadev Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, thus landing in a situation where it needed 22 more seats to form the next Government.
Though the NCP announced support to it from outside to form the next Government in the State, the BJP might not eventually seek the Sharad Pawar-led party’s support. Instead, as available pointers suggested, the BJP might initiate the process of sewing-up a post-poll alliance with erstwhile saffron alliance partner Shiv Sena in the coming days.
On its part, the Shiv Sena indicated that though it was not averse to having a post-poll alliance with the BJP, it came up with one of the conditions that it wanted an assurance from the BJP that the NDA Government would not carve out a separate State of Vidarbha from Maharashtra.
Contrary to speculation in the media, both the Sena and the BJP categorically stated that there was no communication as yet between them on the sharing of power in the State.Given the bitterness between the two saffron alliance partners and the complexities involved in the impending re-marriage between them, it will take a few days before the Sena and the BJP break the ice and initiate talks over the formation of the next Government in the State.
The BJP, meanwhile, is also understood to be exploring the possibility of forming the next Government independent of the support from the Shiv Sena.In the fractured mandate thrown up by Wednesday’s polls, the Shiv Sena emerged second by winning as many as 63 seats (out of 282 seats it had contested). The Congress ended up with a final tally of mere 42 seats (out of the total 287 seats it contested), while its erstwhile ruling partner NCP bagged 41 seats (out of a total 278 seats contested).
The Raj Thackeray-led MNS, which had won as many as 13 seats in the 2009 Assembly polls, put up a pathetic performance by winning a mere one seat out of total 219 seats it had contested. On the contrary, the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a party whose influence confined to Andhra Pradesh, opened an account in the Maharashtra Assembly, by winning three seats.
An analysis of the poll results shows that the BJP has reaped the maximum benefit of going it alone the polls. For, it nearly doubled the percentage of votes (from 14.02 per cent in 2009 to 27.8 per cent in 2014) and increased its winning tally by more than two and a half times from 46 seats in the 2009 polls to 122 seats in the 2014 polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s spirited campaign in the polls contributed a great deal to the BJP’s electoral success. Another factor that contributed to the BJP’s superlative performance was that 22 out of the 58 candidates, whom it had “imported” from other political parties, romped home in the polls.
Though it had exaggerated its strength ahead of the polls, the Shiv Sena had a reason to be more than satisfied with its performance in the current polls that saw the party increase in its polling percentage from 16.26 in the previous polls to 19.4 now and scale up its seat tally from 44 in 2009 to 63 seats in 2014.
Not unexpectedly, the Congress lost out both in terms of polling percentage (which went down from the previous 21.01 per cent to 17.9 per cent) and seats (from 82 in 2009 to 42 in 2014). Though it improved its polling percentage from 16.37 in 2009 to 17.3, the NCP cut sorry figure by not being able to hold onto 62 seats it had won and ended up with a tally of mere 41 seats in the current polls.
Of the total 122 seats won by the BJP, a maximum share of 44 seats came from its stronghold of Vidarbha region (involving a total of 62 seats), where it had won mere two seats in the 2009 Assembly polls but improved its position markedly in the 2014 lok Sabha polls which saw the party win six seats out of 10 lok Sabha seats in the region and establish leads as many as 35 Assembly segments in the same election
In Vidarbha, the Congress won ten seats, while the Sena bagged four seats. The NCP managed to win mere one seat from the region.In the NCP’s bastion of western Maharashtra, the BJP consolidated its position from 11 seat (in 2009) to 24 seats as against 19 seats won by the NCP, 13 by the Shiv Sena, 10 seats and one by the MNS.
In its another stronghold of north Maharashtra, the BJP won 14 out of the 35 seats while the Sena and the Congress won seven seats each. The remaining five seats were bagged by the NCP from this region.In coastal Konkan region (with total 39 seats), the Shiv Sena walked away with a maximum of 14 seats, while the BJP won ten seats. The NCP won eight seats, while the Congress won mere one seat.
The BJP fell short of its expectations in its stronghold of Marathwada, where it managed to win 15 out of 46 seats, while the Shiv Sena bagged 12 seats. The Congress and NCP won eight seats from this region.In Mumbai, the BJP won 15 seats out of the total 36 seats, while the Shiv Sena bagged 14 seats. The Congress secured ten seats, while the NCP won a mere one seat. Ironically enough, the MNS could not win even one seat, in a clear reflection of the vast erosion of its clout in the country’s commercial capital.
In the face of a defeat suffered by the Congress, former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan redeemed himself by winning the Karad (south) seat by trouncing the party’s rebel and seven-time MlA Vilaskaka Patil Undalkar by a margin of 16,418 votes.Among the prominent leaders who suffered shocking defeats in the polls were Narayan Rane, Harshvardhan Patil, Kripashankar Singh, Satej Patil, former President Pratibha Patil’s Rajendra Shekawat, all from the Congress, Ganesh Naik, Nawab Mallik, Sachin Aher, Surssh Dhas, all from the NCP, Subhash Desai, Vinod Ghosalkar, both from the Shiv Sena, Bala Nandgaon, Pravin Dherekar and Vasant Gete, all from the MNS.