Mumbai: Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday said his party's defeat was "shocking" and dubbed it as the "worst-ever" loss in the state assembly polls.
Chavan said the Mahayuti government's Ladki Bahin Yojana, for providing financial assistance to women, clicked with voters in rural areas while polarisation hit the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi's (MVA) prospects in urban parts of the state.
"It is difficult to say whether there was a wave or tampering," said Chavan, who lost from his Karad South seat.
The results of the November 20 polls to the 288-member state assembly were announced on Saturday.
Several bigwigs from the MVA, including Chavan, were defeated.
The Congress, which contested 101 seats as part of the MVA, posted its worst-ever defeat by managing to win only 16 seats. Chavan said he was expecting to win his Karad South seat in Satara district by 5,000 to 6,000 votes. But, all MVA nominees in the district lost by nearly a margin of 40,000 votes, he noted.
BJP's Atul Bhosale defeated the former CM in Karad South by a margin of 39,355 votes, as per the results announced by the Election Commission on Saturday.
Chavan said that in the 1977 Lok Sabha polls, Congress' tally of 20 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra was the lowest ever.
"This is a shocking defeat and is the worst-ever in the assembly polls," he said, referring to the just concluded state elections.
Chavan said he had spoken to All India Congress Committee in-charge for Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala, who has left for Delhi to discuss the state results with the Congress leadership.
"I will stay back in Karad for two days to meet people," Chavan said.
