Yearender 2024: Maharashtra Assembly Election | Fadnavis Returns As CM After Landslide Win For Mahayuti

BJP-led Mahayuti recovered within six months of LS poll reverses and secured a massive mandate in Maharashtra Assembly Election, reports ETV Bharat's Nikhil Rajendra Bapat.

Hyderabad:The Mahayuti comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) fared poorly in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra as they won only 17 out of the total 28 seats in the key western state. But within six months, the political scene changed dramatically as Mahayuti made an unbelievable and robust recovery in the run-up to the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections

The then Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, now the Chief Minister, dropped a political bombshell after the Lok Sabha polls results were declared. Fadnavis, who had coined the famous slogan - 'Mi Punha Yeein' (I will come back again), took full responsibility for the LS loss and offered to resign from the post of Deputy CM post. He urged the BJP top brass to relieve him from the Deputy CM post and work for the party for the Maharashtra polls.

Cut to November 23, 2024, the Mahayuti won the Maharashtra Assembly Polls by a huge margin. It was the best show by any alliance in the history of the state as the Mahayuti won over 230 seats, with the BJP alone winning a staggering 132 seats. The BJP thus emerged as the single largest party while the Shiv Sena led by former Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, currently the Deputy CM, won 57 seats.

The Ajit Pawar-led NCP won 41 seats and Ajit himself who took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ajit defeated Yugendra Pawar, grandson of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar from his traditional Baramati seat.

So what changed in a matter of six months? The Mahayuti put up a united face as against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which is also not likely to get the Leader of Opposition post in the Maharashtra Assembly.

From the first day when the Election Commission of India announced poll dates, Devendra Fadnavis was confident of a Mahayuti win. He had said that a fake narrative does not work all the time.

The Mahayuti then introduced the 'Ladki Bahin' scheme for the women, where the beneficiaries, were given a stipulated amount every month. This scheme turned out to be a game-changer as more women voted in the Assembly polls and they voted in favour of the BJP and its allies.

The other factors that proved crucial for the Mahayuti are that they restored confidence among the voters, reaching the schemes to the masses, and controlling the rebels within their alliance.

For example, in the Borivali Assembly seat in suburban Mumbai, senior BJP leader and former MP Gopal Shetty had rebelled against the party's official candidate Sanjay Upadhyay. However, top BJP leaders including Union Minister Piyush Goyal and Devendra Fadnavis, reached out to a miffed Shetty and persuaded him to take back his nomination.

Like this, the BJP was successful in containing its rebels which helped the party to consolidate its voters. Like Borivali, which is a traditional BJP bastion, the BJP managed to retain all other traditional seats like Nagpur South-West from where Fadnavis was elected, Kasba Peth from where Hemant Rasne was elected, Parvati from where Madhuri Misal won, Colaba from where Rahul Narwekar was elected, and Malabar Hill from where Mangal Prabhat Lodha won.

This Maharashtra election was a battle between the two Shiv Senas and it was the one led by Eknath Shinde that trounced the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) led by Uddhav Thackeray, son of late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray.

Shiv Sena dominated the polls as they won 57 seats against UBT's 20 seats. The Shiv Sena did exceedingly well in urban areas of Mumbai, and Thane to a large extent in the rural areas, particularly the coastal region.

For example, Shinde retained his traditional Kopri-Panchpakadhi seat by defeating Kedar Dighe, nephew of his mentor late Anand Dighe. Pratap Sarnaik won from the Ovala-Majiwada seat in Thane city. In the Konkan too, former Maharashtra Minister Deepak Kesarkar retained his seat and the Shiv Sena successfully negated the challenge of Shiv Sena (UBT) despite numerous rallies by Uddhav Thackeray.

The 2024 Maharashtra polls also decided which is the real NCP and the voters voted decisively in favour of Ajit Pawar-led party. The undivided NCP always did well in western Maharashtra, comprising districts like Pune, Satara, Solapur, Sangli and Kolhapur, which is a traditional sugar belt. The region has a number of sugar factories and they always voted for Sharad Pawar and his men. However, in this election, the picture changed drastically, and the voters voted in favour of Ajit Pawar and the NCP candidates.

Take the example of the Indapur seat, which was won by NCP candidate Dattatray Bharne, who defeated Harshvardhan Patil, a turncoat from the Congress and the BJP.

It dented the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the party managed to win only 10 seats in the entire state. So much so, that the sitting MLA from Karjat-Jamkhed Rohit Pawar, grandson of Sharad Pawar, won by a handful margin against Prof Ram Satpute of the BJP.

The elections were a nightmare for the Congress as its key leaders including former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat lost the polls. Thorat, who was an MLA for over three decades, bit the dust in the Sangamner Assembly constituency in Ahmednagar district while Chavan lost from his traditional Karad South. Chavan, a former Union Minister, lost to the BJP nominee Dr Atulbaba Bhosale.

This election also did not change the fate of Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) as the party drew a blank. Even Raj Thackeray's son Amit Thackeray, who had made his electoral debut from the Mahim Assembly seat in Mumbai, lost to Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Mahesh Sawant.

In this Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Maratha quota factor was supposed to be a significant issue, especially after the numerous protests by their leader Manoj Jarange Patil. Patil on repeated occasions had trained his guns on Fadnavis, but this factor did not have any impact, as the Mahayuti swept the entire state, including areas like Vidarbha and Marathwada. Marathwada has a sizable number of Maratha population.

The Vanchit Bahujan Agadhi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar also failed to make an impact as it was Mahayuti all over the state.

The MVA, particularly Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, blamed the EVMs, for the loss, and said that this result was not acceptable to the people of the state.

Meanwhile, after their thumping win and hectic negotiations in Delhi and Mumbai, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Maharashtra Chief Minister at a grand function at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

After much persuasion, a disgruntled Eknath Shinde took oath as the Deputy CM. Wait and see see how the Mahayuti fulfills all their promises including an enhanced amount for women through the Ladki Bahin scheme for the next five years.

In 2024, Maharashtra voted in one voice and for one alliance.

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