Sena-BJP managed to retain 41 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra

BJP workers celebrate the party's victory at Borivli on Thursday. Pic/Nimesh Dave

The BJP's showing in Maharashtra has not only buttressed Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's leadership, but has also proven that a severe drought and an agrarian crisis had minimum impact on polls. The BJP-Shiv Sena top brass' decision to bury the hatchet and reboot the traditional political Hindutva alliance boosted the combine to 41 out of the state's 48 seats, the same as 2014. (BJP 23; SS 18)

In fact, the saffron alliance has improved its performance in the region that is facing severe drought and agrarian crisis - Marathwada - winning seven of the eight seats. In 2014, Congress managed to win two seats (Nanded, Ashok Chavan; and Hingoli, Rajeev Satav) in the region. This time, Chavan lost to Shiv Sena's Pratap Chikhalikar. While Satav did not contest the polls, Sena's Hemant Patil defeated the Congress candidate in Hingoli.

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Like in many other seats in Maharashtra, Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi played spoilsport in Nanded too. State Congress president Ashok Chavan polled 433,502 votes to Chikhalikar's 475,801. The VBA candidate Yashpal Bhinge got 162,612 votes, thereby sealing Chavan's fate. The only seat the saffron alliance could not retain in the region was Aurangabad, where four-time sitting Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire lost to AIMIM Imtiyaz Jaleel, who, to his advantage, was backed by the VBA.

The Congress-NCP combine was banking on the drought crisis to improve its performance. However, the outcome of the polls has set the alarm bells ringing in the opposition camp ahead of the assembly polls scheduled later this year. While the NCP bagged four seats and retained its tally, ally Congress saw its numbers decline to one, winning Chandrapur, where Suresh Dhanorkar defeated the BJP's Hansraj Ahir. The Congress had initially announced Vinayak Bangade as its candidate but following public protests and embarrassment due to a leaked audio tape, the Congress replaced Bangade with Dhanorkar. Navneet Rana, an independent supported by the NCP, won from Amravati.

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Farmers' leader Raju Shetty of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, who had BJP support in 2014, couldn't make it to Delhi this time. Before the election, Shetty had expressed displeasure over farmers' issue not being addressed by the saffron alliance, deciding to contest from Hatkanangle.While the Sena-BJP bagged all 12 seats in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region in 2014, it lost one seat (Raigad, where the NCP's Sunil Tatkare defeated Sena's Anant Geete) this time.

In Vidarbha, the saffron alliance had bagged 10 seats in 2014. But, in 2019 the tally declined by two seats. In North Maharashtra, the saffron alliance bagged all eight seats. This is where senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse was said to be upset with the BJP and the opposition was expecting an impact on its prospects.

The high profile Ahmednagar and Maval seats also went into the saffron kitty. Senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil's son Sujay joined the BJP as he was denied a ticket by the Congress. The BJP dropped its sitting Ahmednagar MP (Dilip Gandhi) and announced Sujay as its candidate. Ajit Pawar's son Parth lost Maval to the Sena.

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