Ajit Pawar, Amit Shah and Eknath Shinde.
Nomination for assembly elections in Maharashtra is over. Voting will take place in 288 seats in the state on November 20 and counting of votes will take place on November 23. After that it will be clear whether the Mahayuti government will be formed again in Maharashtra or whether the Maha Vikas Aghadi will return to power. But after that, both parties will campaign vigorously in the elections.
After Diwali, all the big leaders of the BJP, Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena factions will be seen holding election rallies and vigorous election campaigning in the state, but for the first time, the BJP is participating in the elections with the lower number of votes. seats to date. In such a situation, the question arises: why is the BJP contesting the elections with fewer seats?
The BJP is contesting the elections for 148 seats
This time the BJP is contesting only 148 seats of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly. Compared to the 2019 assembly elections, this time the BJP is contesting on 15 fewer seats, while Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena fielded its candidates for 80 seats, while Ajit Pawar’s NCP fielded candidates for 53 seats.
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Apart from this, five seats were given to other allies of Mahayuti, while in two segments no decision was taken. In such a situation, questions arise: under what compulsion has the BJP fielded candidates for fewer seats?
According to BJP sources, this time the anti-governance wave against the BJP is very high in the state. At the same time, the BJP has swapped candidates with its allies for at least 10 seats this time, so the BJP’s strike rate remains intact.
BJP won 9 seats in Lok Sabha elections
In this year’s Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won only 9 seats after contesting 28 seats. In terms of vote percentage, the BJP got 26.4 per cent of the votes.
However, if we compare the BJP’s electoral performance with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it was definitely poor. If we talk about the BJP’s allies, Shiv Sena-led Eknath Shinde contested 15 seats with 13 per cent votes and won seven seats.
Ajit Pawar’s NCP won only one seat
The Ajit Pawar-led NCP contested four seats and won only one with a total vote share of 3.6 per cent, while the BJP got 27.8 per cent votes in 2019, which is a little more than the proportion of votes he obtained in 2024.
The Congress got 16.4% of the votes, while the undivided Shiv Sena and NCP got 23.5% and 15.7% of the votes respectively.
Even in the 2014 and 2019 assembly elections, the BJP’s vote share was higher than that of other parties. In such a situation, political experts believe that Shiv Sena, the party of Shinde and Ajit Pawar, can prevail on local issues in Maharashtra. BJP says earlier we were also number one in the alliance. Even today it is the number one party in the alliance.
Maratha reservation a big issue in elections
A large number of Marathas have also voted for him. Maratha reservation has been a big problem in the state. Due to the reservation issue, the BJP is avoiding Marathi issues so that its head does not explode and the most important thing is that the seats have been distributed based on who can win and from where.
In 2019, the BJP had an alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena, when the party contested 164 seats and got a vote share of 25.8%. In such a situation, this time the BJP not only gave more seats to its two new allies, but on a large scale, BJP candidates are contesting from Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s party.
