Mumbai: The Assembly elections in Maharashtra drew a perfect script for a unique political potboiler where on one end Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena was fighting Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena and on the other hand, veteran Sharad Pawar's NCP was battling it out against his nephew Ajit Pawar's NCP.
The results on Saturday, however, put to rest (if only temporarily) the question of who was the "real" representative of people and worthy of carrying the names that have a long history behind them.
Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde trounced the rival Shiv Sena (UBT) in as many as 36 Assembly seats in the western state. In comparison, Uddhav's Sena managed to defeat Shinde's candidates in only 14 seats.
Overall, Shinde’s Sena, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, won 57 of the 81 seats it contested in the state polls. Uddhav's Sena (UBT), a partner in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), managed to bag only 20 despite fielding 95 candidates.
As for Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), its founder and veteran leader Sharad Pawar was handed one of the biggest defeats at the fag end of his prolific political career by none other than his nephew and once right-hand and confidant Ajit Pawar.
The Ajit Pawar-led NCP defeated Sharad Pawar's NCP in 29 seats in the contest between the two rival factions while the latter came out winner in only six constituencies.
Overall, Ajit Pawar's NCP, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti, won 41 of the 59 seats it contested while his uncle had to be content with only 10 seats, though NCP (SP) fielded 86 candidates.
In 2023, Ajit Pawar shocked his uncle Sharad after walking away with 41 MLAs to ally with Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and BJP. This resulted in a split in the NCP, the party Senior Pawar founded in 1999.
Ajit Pawar's shocker came a year after a similar development in Shiv Sena where Shinde rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray and sided with the BJP.
The move divided the Sena and led to the fall of the Thackeray-led MVA government and triggered a major row over who the "real" Shiv Sena was. That was until Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar ruled earlier this year that Shinde’s faction was the ‘real Shiv Sena’.
Who defeated whom in two Senas?
Since he led the rebellion in 2022, Eknath Shinde retained most of the sitting MLAs, who had sided with him. The same bunch delivered for him on Saturday when votes for the state polls were counted.
- Minister Abdul Sattar defeated Suresh Bankar in Sillod. Pradeep Jaiswal, who fought against Balasaheb Thorat, was the winner in Aurangabad Central.
- Sanjay Shirsat beat Raju Shinde in Aurangabad West seat, while Vilas Bhumre came on top in his fight against Dattatrey Gorde in Paithan.
- Chandrakant Sonawane, who replaced his wife and sitting MLA Lata Sonawane, defeated Prabhakar Sonawane of Sena (UBT) in Chopda.
- Sanjana Jadhav trounced Udaysing Rajput in Kannad, while Sanjay Bangar emerged victorious against Santosh Tarfe in Kalamnuri.
- Ganesh Dhatrak was bested by Suhas Kande in Nandgaon. Dada Bhuse defeated Prashant Hiray in Malegaon outer.
- In the tribal-dominated Palghar constituency, Rajendra Gavit beat Jayendra Dubla.
- In Bhiwandi rural of Thane district where CM Shinde holds sway, Shantaram More of his party defeated Uddhav’s man Mahadev Ghatal.
- Vishwas Bhoir vanquished Sachin Basare in Kalyan West, while Pratap Sarnaik defeated Naresh Manera in Ovla Majiwada in Thane city.
- Shinde registered a massive victory in his Kopri-Pachpakhadi seat defeating Kedar Dighe by a margin of 1.2 lakh votes.
- Prakash Surve trounced Udesh Patekar In Magathane while Ashok Patil vanquished Ramesh Korgaonkar in Bhandup West.
- Murji Patel, who had earlier lost to Rutuja Latke in Andheri East, bounced back as the winner. Tukaram Kate defeated Prakash Phaterpekar in Chembur. Both Latke and Phatarpekar were sitting MLAs, who had stayed with Uddhav.
- Bharat Gogawale got more votes than Snehal Jagtap to bag the Mahad seat, while Shambhuraj Desai trounced Bhanupratap Kadam in Patan.
- In coastal Dapoli, Yogesh Kadam defeated Sanjay Kadam.
- Minister Uday Samant won against Bal Mane in Ratnagiri, while Kiran Samant beat sitting MLA Rajan Salvi in Rajapur.
- Nilesh Rane, who switched from BJP to Shiv Sena before the polls, defeated sitting MLA Vaibhav Naik in Kudal. In Sawantwadi near Goa, Deepak Kesarkar got the best of Rajan Teli. Prakash Abitkar defeated KP Patil in Radhanagari.
- The Sena (UBT) won against the Shiv Sena in 14 seats.
- In Mehkar, Rambhau Kharat defeated Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Bhaskar Raymulkar, while Nitin Bhikanrao Deshmukh was the winner in Balapur. Shiv Sena’s Bhagwan Siraskar came third.
- Sunil Raut defeated Suvarna Karanje in Vikhroli and his Sena (UBT) colleague Anant Nar was the winner in Jogeshwari West after a face-off with Manisha Waikar.
- Sunil Prabhu defeated Sanjay Nirupam in Dindoshi. Mahesh Sawant beat Sada Sarvankar in Mahim.
- Uddhav Thackeray’s son and former minister Aaditya Thackeray retained his Worli seat by defeating Milind Deora.
- Manoj Jamsutkar defeated Yamini Jadhav in Byculla.
- The vote share of the Sena (UBT) was 9.96 per cent compared to Shiv Sena’s 12.38 per cent.
NCP vs NCP battle
Ajit Pawar's NCP defeated Sharad Pawar's faction in 29 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
- Ajit Pawar defeated his nephew Yugendra Pawar, endorsed by Sharad Pawar, by a margin of over one lakh votes, inflicting on the veteran leader the first-ever defeat in this family bastion.
- The 29 seats that the NCP bagged in a direct fight with the NCP (SP) candidates included Sindhkhed Raja where Manoj Kayande defeated sitting MLA Rajendra Shingane, who had earlier sided with Ajit Pawar, but subsequently returned to his parent party.
- Aheri saw another intra-family battle, with Dharmarao Atram of the NCP defeating his daughter Bhagyashree of the NCP (SP).
- Indranil Naik beat Sharad Maind of NCP (SP) in Pusad, while Chandrakant Navghare came in top in the face-off against Jaiprakash Dandegaonkar of NCP (SP) in Basmath.
- Prominent OBC leader and Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal defeated Manikrao Shinde of NCP (SP) in Yeola. In Sinnar, Manikrao Kokate won against Uday Sangale of NCP (SP).
- Maharashtra Assembly deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal of NCP retained his Dindori seat, registering a triumph over Sunita Charoskar.
- Daulat Daroda beat Pandurang Barora in Shahapur, while former minister Nawab Malik's daughter Sana Malik won against NCP(SP) nominee Fahad Ahmad, who is also the husband of actor Swara Bhasker, in Mumbai's Anushaktinagar in a high-decibel contest.
- Anil Navgane of NCP (SP) was bested by Minister Aditi Tatkare in the coastal Srivardhan. In Ambegaon, her cabinet colleague Dilip Walse Patil defeated Devdutt Nikam.
- Shirur constituency saw Dnyaneshwar Katke winning the fight against Ashok Pawar of NCP (SP).
- Anna Bandsode trounced Sulakshana Dhar of NCP (SP) in Pimpri, while Kiran Lahamate defeated Amit Bhangare of NCP (SP) in Akole.
- In Kopargaon, Ashutosh Kale beat Sandeep Varpe of NCP (SP).
- Sangram Jagtap defeated Abhishek Kalamkar of NCP (SP) in Ahmednagar city. In Majalgaon, Prakash Solanke marched to victory, leaving behind Mohan Jagtap of NCP (SP).
- Minister Dhananjay Munde took a whopping lead of 1.4 lakh votes over Rajesaheb Deshmukh to emerge as the winner in Parli of Beed district in the Marathwada region.
- Babasaheb Patil defeated Vinayak Jadhav Patil of NCP (SP) in Ahmedpur, while Sanjay Bandsode scored over Sudhakar Bhalerao of NCP (SP) in Udgir.
- In Phaltan, Deepak Chavan of NCP (SP) was bested by Sachin Patil. His party colleague Makrand Patil defeated Aruna Pisal of NCP (SP) in Wai. Shekar Nikam won the face-off against Prashant Yadav of NCP (SP) in Chiplun.
- Minister Hasan Mushrif registered victory in Kagal by trouncing Samarjit Ghatge. Kashinath Date beat Rani Lanke of NCP (SP) in Parner and Raju Karemore defeated Charan Waghmare of NCP (SP) in Tumsar.
- In Indapur, Datta Bharne won against Harshvardhan Patil, who had crossed over from the BJP to NCP (SP) before the November 20 polls.
- Notably, Sharad Pawar's party polled 11.28 per cent of all votes. The figure for the NCP stood at 9.01 per cent.
- Referring to the rivals as "traitors", Sharad Pawar had asked voters to defeat them "decisively". The results show voters ignored the appeal.
- The NCP (SP) candidates who defeated their NCP rivals included Jitendra Awhad, who won against Najeeb Mulla in Mumbra Kalwa.
- Bapusaheb Pathare defeated Sunil Tingre in Vadgaon Sheri.
- Sandeep Kshirsagar defeated Yogesh Kshirsagar in Beed.
- Abhijit Patil won in Madha leaving Minal Sathe of the NCP in the third position.
- Raju Khare defeated Yashwant Mane in Mohol, while state NCP (SP) chief Jayant Patil defeated Nishikant Patil in Islampur.
- Rohit Patil defeated Sanjay Kaka Patil in Tasgaon Kavathe-Mahankal. (With agency inputs)
