INDIA bloc edges past BJP-led Mahayuti in Maharashtra

According to the Election Commission figures, the INDIA bloc is leading in 27 seats, while the NDA is trailing behind on 20 seats in Maharashtra.

Maharashtra, with 48 Lok Sabha constituencies, plays a crucial role in the nation's political discourse. The 18th Lok Sabha Elections were conducted across three phases in the state. However, major political splits in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections are anticipated to largely impact the outcome this time.

Between the period of 2019 and 2024, the state witnessed major splits - Shiv Sena splitting into Shinde-led faction and the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) faction. On the other hand, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) split into the Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections saw a high-octane contest between two major alliances in the state - the ruling Mahayuti, comprising the BJP, NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), and the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), and Congress.

In the Mahayuti alliance, the BJP contested 28 seats, the Shinde faction of Shiv Sena contested 14 seats, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP contested 5 seats. In the MVA alliance, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena was allocated 21 seats, Congress received 17 seats, and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP was given 10 seats.

Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, six are in Mumbai, while the adjoining Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has four. Mumbai’s constituencies include Mumbai North, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South, and Mumbai South Central. The MMR encompasses Thane, Kalyan, Bhiwandi, and Palghar. In the 2019 elections, the BJP secured three of Mumbai’s seats, while the remaining three were won by the Shiv Sena.

In the 2014 elections, the BJP-led alliance won 42 seats, and in 2019, they won 41 seats. The BJP secured 23 of the 25 seats it contested in 2019, while its then-ally, the undivided Shiv Sena, won 18 of the 23 seats it contested. The undivided NCP, as part of the opposition alliance, contested 19 seats and won four.

Key candidates in the 2024 elections include Piyush Goyal (BJP, Mumbai North), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena UBT, Mumbai South), Varsha Gaikwad (Congress, Mumbai North Central), Kapil Patil (BJP, Bhiwandi), Rajan Vichare (Shiv Sena UBT, Thane), Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena, Kalyan), Raosaheb Danve (BJP, Jalna), Pankaja Munde (BJP, Beed), Sujay Vikhe-Patil (BJP, Ahmednagar), Nitin Gadkari (BJP, Nagpur), Supriya Sule (NCP SP, Baramati), Udayanraje Bhosale (BJP, Satara), Navneet Kaur Rana (BJP, Amravati), and Sudhir Mungantiwar (BJP, Chandrapur).

The outcomes of these elections will be crucial for Maharashtra, which is also preparing for the assembly elections later this year.

This story will be updated with the latest trends as they come in.