Maharashtra Assembly Election Results

Maharashtra Election Results 2019
Party Name	Seats
Bharatiya Janata Party	105
Shiv Sena	56
Nationalist Congress Party	54
Indian National Congress	44
Others	29

Analysis of Maharashtra Elections 2019 Results

The result for the Maharashtra assembly election was declared on October 24, 2019. The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has won 162 seats, much more than the majority mark of 145-seats. However, the tally is far less than the 200 seats that some BJP leaders expected to get. BJP won 105 seats this time, 17 less than the 2014 assembly election when it won 122 seats. Shiv Sena won 56 seats, 7 seats less than the 2014 assembly election when it won 63 seats.

The Congress-NCP alliance performed far better than the numbers predicted by the exit polls. The Cong-NCP alliance won 98 seats. NCP won 54 seats in 2019 Maharashtra assembly election, 13 more than the 2014 assembly election when it won just 41 seats. In fact, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar not only helped his party retain sway over western Maharashtra but also helped its ally Congress (which appeared leaderless and clueless throughout the election campaign) bag 44 seats, thereby helping it increase its tally by 2 seats from the 2014 election when it won 42 seats.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called it a “clear and decisive mandate” for the BJP-Sena grand alliance. However, the less than expected poll result has led Shiv Sena (the bittersweet Maharashtra ally of BJP) to advice Devendra Fadnavis led BJP to have its feet on the ground in its editorial in the SS mouthpiece Saamana. The editorial said that the BJP may call the victory a huge mandate but actually it is just a mandate.

The criticism of falling short of the expectation has been defended by Fadnavis by saying that BJP has improved its strike rate from 47% (winning 122 seats out of the 260 seats contested) in 2014 to 65% (winning 105 seats out of the 162 seats contested) in 2019. BJP’s vote share has dropped from 28% in 2014 to 25.75% in 2019.

Even though Shiv Sena has emerged as an important political party in Maharashtra assembly election 2019, its vote share has dropped from 19.35% in 2014 to 16.44% in 2019. In fact, Shiv Sena’s strike rate is also just 45% with respect to BJP’s 65%.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has said that “this election is an eye-opener for all political parties”, thanked the people of Maharashtra for keeping the democracy alive, and bowed before the people while accepting the mandate.

Uddhav Thackeray has asked BJP to implement a 50-50 formula as discussed with BJP President Amit Shah at the beginning of the year before the 2019 Lok Sabha election. This formula, if implemented, will lead to the sharing of the Chief Ministerial post by both BJP and Shiv Sena for 2.5 years each. Thackeray has demanded a written assurance from the BJP regarding the equal formula for sharing of power in Maharashtra and demanded to make his son Aaditya Thackeray the next CM in the power-sharing deal.

Key Factors in this Election Result:

Devendra Fadnavis was unable to rein in the rebels in BJP, which turned the no contest to a strong contest between BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP alliances.

Local issues such as farm distress, aftermaths of the flood, and lack of works in the drought-prone areas in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions kicked in the anti-incumbency factor, which was well galvanized by the Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar. However, Fadnavis’s drought-free Maharashtra slogan saved the day for BJP.

8 outgoing Maharashtra ministers lost this election:

1. Pankaja Munde of BJP (Minister for Rural Development and Women and Child Welfare; daughter of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde)
2. Ram Shinde of BJP (Guardian Minister of Ahmednagar and Water Conservation Minister)
3. Sanjay Bhegade of BJP (Minister of State for Labour, Environment, Relief, and Rehabilitation)
4. Vijay Shivtare of Shiv Sena (Minister of State for Water Resources)
5. Arjun Khotkar of Shiv Sena (Minister of State for Textile, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, and Fisheries)
6. Anil Bonde of BJP (Agriculture Minister)
7. Jaydutt Kshirsagar of Shiv Sena (Minister for Employment Guarantee and Horticulture)
8. Ambrish Atram of BJP (Minister of State for Tribal Development)

35 people defected from the Congress-NCP alliance to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance before the election. At least 19 of them lost. Some of the defectors who lost are Jaydutt Kshirsagar, Vaibhav Pichad, Pandurang Barora, Nirmala Gavit, Harshvardhan Patil, and many more.

NOTA played spoilsport as 7,42,134 voters or 1.35% of the electorates voted for NOTA. 4,60,741 voters had opted for NOTA in 2014.

• In Marathwada’s Latur Rural Assembly, 27,500 votes or 13.78% votes went to NOTA, giving it second position.
• In Palus-Kadegaon seat too, NOTA got 20,631 votes to emerge at the second spot.
• In Borivali constituency too more than 10,000 votes went to NOTA.