The Maval Assembly seat in Maharashtra’s Pune district is gearing up for a tough electoral battle in the 2024 state elections. This unreserved seat has been a stronghold of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), but the political dynamics have shifted significantly following the party's split in 2023.
The Maval constituency, located in a district with 8,647,172 registered voters (4,491,068 male, 4,155,330 female, and 774 third-gender voters), will be a critical battleground as Maharashtra heads to the polls on November 20.
Maval constituency candidates for 2024
In the 2024 elections, the sitting MLA, Sunil Shankarrao Shelke, who previously won under the Sharad Pawar-led NCP in 2019, will now contest as part of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction. He faces a stiff challenge from Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Rohit Babar, who has emerged as a key contender representing the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The BJP, a key component of the Maha Yuti alliance, has fielded Rajendra Patil to wrest control of the seat from the NCP.
Maval Assembly Elections: A Glimpse into 2019
In the 2019 Assembly elections, NCP's Sunil Shankarrao Shelke won the Maval seat with a landslide margin of 93,942 votes, securing 1,37,742 votes (53.4 percent), defeating BJP candidate Bhairavnath Narayanrao Babar, who received 43,800 votes (19.7 percent). The Shiv Sena’s Ramesh Vishwanath Jadhav secured 33,101 votes (12.8 percent) to take third place.
Ahmadpur Assembly Elections: Playback 2014
In the 2014 Assembly elections, BJP’s Bhairavnath Narayanrao Babar won the Maval seat with 79,452 votes, defeating NCP’s Vilas Laxman Jagtap, who garnered 72,841 votes. Shiv Sena’s Ramesh Vishwanath Jadhav came in third with 34,205 votes.
Shifting Political Landscape
The state has seen dramatic changes since 2019, starting with the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) led by Uddhav Thackeray after the Shiv Sena split from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). In 2022, Eknath Shinde’s defection from Thackeray’s faction and subsequent alliance with the BJP led to the MVA government’s collapse.
Adding to the turbulence, in 2023, Ajit Pawar broke away from Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction and joined the Maha Yuti, leading to the current alignment of the MVA (Shiv Sena-UBT, NCP-SP, Congress) and the Maha Yuti (BJP, Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar-led NCP).
Maval constituency election and results dates
The Maval constituency will go to the polls on November 20, along with the 287 other constituencies in Maharashtra. The results for Maval, along with all other 287 Assembly seats in Maharashtra, will be declared on November 23.
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