Quiet mutiny: 43 MVA runner-up candidates defected to Mahayuti in one year after Maharashtra polls

The MVA managed to win only 50 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in November last year. (File: PTI)

As many as 43 Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates who ended up second in their respective constituencies during the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in November 2024 have since jumped ship to the ruling Mahayuti camp, an analysis has shown.

A total of 46 runner-up candidates, including three Independents, joined the Mahayuti within the year. Of these, 26 joined the BJP, 13 joined Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and 7 joined the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, reported The Indian Express.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray was hit the hardest with a majority of these defections happening in areas seen as his party strongholds. A total of 19 candidates fielded by the Shiv Sena (UBT) who emerged runners-up in the polls have joined the Mahayuti within a year.

Sharad Pawar's NCP(SP) is next on the list of defections from the MVA after the Shiv Sena (UBT) with 13 of its former candidates joining the ruling alliance. The Congress, meanwhile, lost 10 of its candidates to the BJP-led alliance during the period.

A region-wise analysis of the defections shows the BJP focussing largely on Marathwada, North Maharashtra and Konkan regions. Of the 16 MVA runners-up who switched loyalties in the Marathwada region, half of them have joined the BJP. Five others have shifted to Ajit Pawar's NCP while the remaining three have joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Eleven MVA candidates joined the Mahayuti in the North Maharashtra region. Of them, 10 have shifted to the BJP and one to the NCP. Similarly in Konkan, a region seen as a Shiv Sena bastion, five candidates have shifted to the BJP, three to the Shinde Sena and two to the NCP.

The candidates inducted by the Ajit Pawar-led NCP are primarily concentrated in the party's strongholds of Marathwada and Western Maharashtra. Of the 13 who have joined his party in the past one year, 5 hail from Marathwada and 4 from Western Maharashtra. The runner-up candidates who joined the NCP include six from the NCP(SP), three from the Congress, and two from the Sena (UBT). Two Independents have also joined the party.

In the case of the Shinde Sena, three of the five Sena (UBT) runners-up who have joined its ranks are from Konkan, while the other two are from Marathwada. The party has also inducted one leader each from the Congress and the NCP(SP).

The Mahayuti had registered an emphatic victory in the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in Maharashtra in November 2024, winning 235 of the 288 seats in the state. The BJP emerged on top with 132 seats, while the Shinde Sena and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) secured 57 and 41 seats, respectively.

The MVA only managed to win 50 seats, including 20 seats bagged by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), 16 won by the Congress, and 10 seats bagged by the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.