Picture : ANI / X
The Bharatiya Janata Party pulled off a stunning performance in Maharashtra winning a record number of seats to propel the party-led ruling Mahayuti alliance to a landslide victory.
Such was the BJP’s dominance that helped the Mahayuti alliance to get a three-fourths majority and continue the winning momentum after its recent historic hat-trick in Haryana, 132 of the 149 candidates fielded by the saffron party won.
“Maharashtra has broken all records, it is the biggest win for any party or pre-poll alliance in the last 50 years,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi told BJP workers at party headquarters to a thunderous applause late in the evening.
The prime minister also asserted that the message from the Maharashtra elections is that of unity and it is also an endorsement of the ‘ek hai toh safe hai’ (united we are safe) slogan.
The BJP’s stellar showing also came just months after it was written off in Maharashtra by some political pundits owing to its poor showing in the politically significant state in the Lok Sabha polls.
In the first assembly elections in Maharashtra since the split in the Shiv Sena and the NCP, Shiv Sena (Shinde) bagged 57 and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) 41.
The majority mark in the 288-member assembly is 145.
The Shiv Sena (Shinde) fought from 81 seats and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in 59 constituencies.
According to PTI, The BJP’s highest tally in assembly elections in Maharashtra was in 2014 when it bagged 122 seats after which Fadnavis became the chief minister for the first time. In 2019, it got 105 seats.
The extent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) decimation can be gauged from the fact that the Congress won just 16 seats, the Shiv Sena-UBT won 20 and the NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar 10.
The Congress had fielded 101 candidates, the Shiv Sena-UBT 95 and the NCP-SP 86.
