Mumbai: The BJP-led Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) have started their assembly poll preparation in Maharashtra based on how the voters gave them support in each and every segment of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra.
The data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) makes it clear that from among 288 constituencies of the state assembly nearly 155 tilted in favour of the MVA, while about 125 supported the Mahayuti candidates. Now for the assembly polls, both alliances have started their preparation for listing probable candidates ahead of the seat sharing discussion.
Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, for his part, said on Saturday that the MVA members are not in a hurry and will decide the seat sharing based on the trends they see on the ground, though “it may take time to decide” where they want to contest.
Shiv Sena (UBT) did not do as well as expected in the Konkan region and in Marathwada, especially Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar where they lost seats to the BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, respectively. In Konkan, Thackeray’s vote share came down to almost 20%. However, the party did well in south Mumbai despite the combined strength of Mahayuti and Raj Thackeray’s MNS.
Sena UBT contested 21 seats in the Lok Sabha polls and won nine and managed to get 16.72% votes in the state, while the Congress contested in 17 constituencies and won 13 seats managing to reach a voting percentage of almost 17% with the best strike rate among all members of the MVA. Sharad Pawar’s NCP contested 10 seats and won seven with a vote share of 10.3%.
After unexpectedly good results for the Congress, Prithviraj Chavan said, “We are ready for seat sharing talks for the assembly polls but there is no elder brother or younger brother in our alliance; all are equal. We will go ahead with a positive mind and see how a good deal can be struck.”
On the other side of the political divide, the BJP contested 28 seats and won only nine despite the highest vote share of 26.1%, while the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) won seven out of the 15 they contested with 12.9% of vote share. Ajit Pawar’s NCP had the worst strike rate as they could manage only 3.6% vote share and won only one seat out of the four they contested. State BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, “We are introspecting why this happened and how we can win the confidence of the people of Maharashtra back.”
It is clear that both sides will now get into a statewide study of how things will shape up for the assembly polls and how many seats they can demand from the alliance partners.
