Congress supporters celebrate the party's lead during counting of votes for Lok Sabha elections, in Mumbai.
Credit: PTI photo
Mumbai: Turning tables, the Congress emerged as the No 1 party in Maharashtra even as the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (I.N.D.I.A) extracted a revenge of the June 2022 toppling its government by dealing a big blow to the BJP and its allies.
The Lok Sabha victory for Congress-MVA came in the run up to the October 2024 Vidhan Sabha elections and ensuing municipal polls.
From a sole seat in 2019, the Congress has reached the double-digit in what signalled the resurgence of the grand old party in Maharashtra- in what was a rise like a Phoenix - by winning/leading in 13 seats.
On the other hand, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) made it clear that it has recovered from the rattling splits in the two parties.
Maharashtra sends 48 members to the Lok Sabha next only to the 80 of Uttar Pradesh.
The ‘tod-jod’ politics and ‘saam, daam, dand, bhedh’ method of the BJP has been completely rejected by the voters, leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi said adding that the misuse of central agencies like IT, ED and CBI exposed the designs of the BJP.
The BJP’s move to split the Shiv Sena and NCP and make Eknath Shinde the Chief Minister and later Ajit Pawar as the Deputy Chief Minister alongside Devendra Fadnavis - does not seem to have worked.
The writing was pretty much on the wall as a large section of the BJP and RSS cadres were not happy with the inclusion of Shinde and Ajit Pawar and selection of some of its candidates. The BJP also saw factionalism - the type once was witnessed within the Congress.
At the time of going to Press, the Congress has won/and leading in 13 seats while its allies Shiv Sena (UBT) won/and leading in 9 and NCP (SP) won/leading in 7 seats.
On the other hand, BJP has won/leading in 10 seats followed by Shiv Sena won/leading in 7 seats and NCP winning one seat.
The mother-of-all-contests was in Baramati, where Sharad Pawar’s daughter defeated Sunetra Pawar, the wife of Ajit Pawar, and won the seat for fourth-time despite all odds.
Three BJP central ministers - Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur), Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North) and Narayan Rane (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg) won the elections, however, three junior ministers - Raosaheb Patil-Danve (Jalna), Dr Bharti Pawar (Dindori) and Kapil Patil (Bhiwandi) lost the polls.
Other prominent winners were Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s daughter Praniti Shinde ( Solapur), scions of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj - Chhatrapati Shrimant Shahu Maharaj ( of the Congress from Kolhapur), Shrimant Udyanraje Bhosale ( of the BJP from Satara).
In Nandurbar, Gowaal 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 a defeat to NCP’s Archana R. Patil - a contest that involved two warring families.
Besides the splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP, Maharashtra faced several other issues like farmers dissent, the Maratha-vs-OBC reservation issue.
The statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi like “nakli Shiv Sena”, “nakli NCP”, “bhatakti aatma” and “ nakli santaan” have not gone down well among the voters.
In 2014, the BJP contested 24 seats and won 23 while Shiv Sena contested 20 seats and won 18, while the Congress contested 22 seats and won two while the NCP contested 21 seats and got 4. The Swabhimani Paksha won one seat.
In 2019, the BJP contested 25 seats and bagged 23 while Shiv Sena contested 23 and got 18, the Congress contested 25 seats and won one seat while the NCP contested 19 seats and won four. The Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM won one seat and Independent one.
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