Maha Vikas Aghadi Sweeps Maharashtra, BJP Faces Major Setback in Lok Sabha Polls!

The counting of votes in 48 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state has been completed for the general elections. According to the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, the results are as follows: Congress won 13 seats, BJP 9, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) 9, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Chandra Pawar) 8, Shiv Sena 7, and one seat each went to another faction of the Nationalist Congress Party and an Independent candidate.

The BJP suffered a setback in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra on Tuesday, with its tally reduced to less than half compared to 2019. Meanwhile, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) gained significant ground, winning 30 of the 48 seats.

The BJP-led NDA fell significantly short of its target of securing 45-plus seats in Maharashtra, according to the results and latest trends as of 11:40 PM. The BJP won nine seats, a sharp decline from the 23 seats it won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state. Its ally, Shiv Sena, won seven seats, and another ally, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, won one seat. However, Ajit Pawar’s wife, Sunetra Pawar, was defeated in Baramati by Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar.

The Congress won nine seats and was leading in four others. Shiv Sena (UBT) won eight seats and was leading in one. NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) won five seats and was leading in three. Vishal Patil, a congressman-turned-independent, won the Sangli seat. He later stated he would abide by any decision the Congress makes regarding his re-entry into the party, which would increase the MVA tally to 31 in the state.

The BJP-led NDA had set an ambitious target of winning 45-plus constituencies in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray stated that the INDIA bloc would meet to decide on the prime ministerial candidate for the alliance. He emphasized that the common man had demonstrated his power in the mandate and that the opposition needed to stake a claim to form the government at the Centre. Thackeray mentioned that the BJP-led NDA was trying to portray that they had the numbers to form the next government in the country.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis attributed the NDA’s performance in the state to the Opposition’s “propaganda” that the BJP would change the Constitution after the polls. He acknowledged that the people’s mandate must be accepted as it is and stated, “We will do deep introspection and will recover our loss in the next assembly election,” Fadnavis posted on X.

Some notable results include Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Waikar winning the Mumbai North West seat by defeating Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee Amol Kirtikar by 48 votes, the smallest margin in the state in the 2024 general elections. In Nagpur, Union minister Nitin Gadkari defeated Congress nominee Vikas Thakre by 137,603 votes. In Mumbai North, Union minister Piyush Goyal of BJP defeated Bhushan Patil of Congress by 356,996 votes. Congress candidate Varsha Gaikwad won from the Mumbai North Central seat, defeating BJP’s Ujjwal Nikam by 16,514 votes. In the coastal Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat, Union minister Narayan Rane of BJP trounced Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee Vinayak Raut by 47,858 votes. In Mumbai South, Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee Arvind Sawant defeated Shiv Sena’s Yamini Jadhav by 52,673 votes. In Mumbai South Central, where Shiv Sena (UBT) headquarters is located, their candidate Anil Desai defeated Shiv Sena’s Rahul Shewale by 53,384 votes. Congress nominee Balwant Wankhade defeated BJP’s Navneet Rana in the Amravati seat by 19,731 votes. In Dindori, Union minister and BJP candidate Bharati Pawar lost to NCP (SP) nominee Bhaskar Bhagare by 113,199 votes. In Kalyan, CM Eknath Shinde’s son and Shiv Sena nominee Shrikant Shinde defeated Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Vaishali Darekar-Rane by 209,144 votes.

The voting was conducted in five phases in the state, and the counting of votes was conducted peacefully on June 4.