Mumbai: As Mahayuti recorded a landslide victory in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections on Saturday, the "Tsunami" result, as a shocked Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray termed it, will leave the state assembly without a leader of the opposition (LoP) for the first time in six decades.
The BJP-led Mahayuti pocketed a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats. No party outside the ruling alliance was able to get the mandatory minimum of 29 seats to be able to function as the LoP. A party is required to win a minimum of 10% of the overall seats to qualify for LoP, as per the provisions of the Salaries and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in the State Legislature Act.
According to the latest data on the Election Commission website, the Shiv Sena (UBT), part of the opposition MVA, won the highest 20 seats in the opposition alliance, nine short of the number needed for LoP. The Congress won 16 seats, while Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) won only 10 seats.
The results for all 288 seats were declared late Saturday evening with the BJP winning a mammoth 132 seats of the 149 it contested. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena emerged victorious on 57 seats. The third constituent of the Mahayuti, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, won 41 seats.
A first in six decades
The Maharashtra Assembly will not have a Leader of the Opposition for the first time in 6 decades. Commenting on it, former principal secretary (legislature) Anant Kalse, in a report, said there was "no scope for Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) to have a leader of opposition".
Kalse said that since LoP cannot be nominated by the combined strength of parties in an alliance, and a party has to have the required numbers on its own.
Who will be the Chief Minister?
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar won in their respective assembly constituencies, while senior Congress leaders Prithviraj Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat lost in theirs.
The focus has now shifted to the next CM with political circles abuzz that it is going to be BJP 's Devendra Fadnavis, the architect of his party’s stunning victory, who is likely to occupy the post for the third time.
In his speech at the BJP headquarters in Delhi Saturday night, PM Narendra Modi called Fadanvis his “param mitra”.
"Maharashtra has broken all records, it is the biggest win for any party or pre-poll alliance in the last 50 years," Modi said, adding the message from the Maharashtra elections is that of unity and it is also an endorsement of the "ek hai toh safe hai" (united we are safe) slogan.
There were reports that the swearing-in of the new CM may take place as early as Monday at the Wankhede Stadium in south Mumbai, where Fadnavis was sworn in as the CM 10 years ago.
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