The Mahayuti alliance’s landslide victory in Maharashtra’s assembly elections revealed a dramatic reshaping of the state’s political landscape, with traditional bastions falling and new power centres emerging across regions.
Overall, ruling Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won 235 of 288 seats, crushing opposition coalition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to be left with a joint tally at 50.
In Marathwada, where the Mahayuti alliance had lost seven of eight Lok Sabha seats just six months ago, it staged a dramatic turnaround by winning 41 of 46 assembly seats. The BJP claimed 19 of 20 seats contested, Shiv Sena won 13 of 16, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP secured 8 of 9.
The dramatic shift in fortunes was attributed to multiple factors, most notably the changing dynamics of the Maratha reservation issue. While Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil’s agitation had significantly damaged the Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha polls, his reduced influence in the assembly elections worked to the alliance’s advantage. “The Jarange-Patil factor did not work this election because of his flip flop over the political stand. He backtracked on his resolve to contest the Assembly elections at the last moment when dozens of community members had filed their nominations. This dented his credibility resulting in Maratha voters going back to Mahayuti,” explained Nanded-based political analyst Santosh Kulkarni.
The BJP’s recovery strategy involved careful social engineering. “There are pockets of RSS influence in many Marathwada districts including Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded. Religious gurus from various parts of the state and their outfits were involved in the drive undertaken to polarise Hindu voters,” revealed a BJP leader from Latur, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The alliance’s systematic galvanisation of the OBC vote bank, coupled with increased outreach through government schemes, proved particularly effective. As Kulkarni noted, “The ruling alliance polarised OBCs and other backward classes in its favour helping it to win most of the seats.”
However, amid this victory, the Mahayuti faced a symbolic setback in the simultaneous Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll, where Congress’s Ravindra Chavan defeated BJP’s Santuk Hambarde by 1,457 votes, largely attributed to sympathy following the death of Chavan’s father Vasantrao.
In Vidarbha, the BJP’s resurgence was particularly striking. After suffering setbacks in the Lok Sabha polls, the party bounced back to win 39 of 62 seats. Its Mahayuti alliance partners picked up 10 more. The Congress, which once dominated this agrarian region, managed just eight seats—a sharp decline from its 2019 tally of 15. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis secured his sixth term in Nagpur South-West, defeating Congress’s Praful Gudadhe-Patil by 39,710 votes. In a dramatic contest in Sakoli, state Congress chief Nana Patole, a top contender for the CM’s post in MVA, barely scraped through with a margin of just 208 votes.
In the Konkan belt and Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the collapse of the Thackeray family’s decades-old dominance was stark. Out of 39 seats, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) managed to win just one seat, while the ruling alliance swept 35. The Mahayuti’s success here was attributed to the RSS’s strong grassroots network and CM Eknath Shinde’s deep local connections. In the Mira Bhayander constituency, BJP’s Narendra Mehta defeated Congress’s Muazaffar Hussain by an impressive margin of over 144,000 votes. In Palghar district, where the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi lost all its seats despite having three sitting MLAs, party chief Hitendra Thakur could only say, “God alone knows what went wrong.”
Western Maharashtra, once a Congress-NCP (undivided NCP that was then led by Sharad Pawar, now an MVA member) stronghold, saw an equally dramatic power shift. The Mahayuti captured 53 out of 70 seats, while the MVA managed only 12. “We had not anticipated such a strong wave in our favour even though we were confident of victory,” said NCP president Ajit Pawar. The region witnessed some of the election’s most significant upheavals, including BJP’s Shivendraraje Bhosale winning Satara by one of the state’s highest margins – 142,124 votes. The Mahayuti won all 10 seats in Kolhapur district.
North Maharashtra presented another compelling sign of political realignment. After losing four of six Lok Sabha seats to MVA earlier this year in this region, the Mahayuti bounced back decisively. The alliance’s victory here was particularly notable for ending several long-standing Congress strongholds. In Sangamner and Akkalkuwa, Congress veterans Balasaheb Thorat and KC Padavi, who had held their seats since 1985 and 1990 respectively, faced defeat. In another significant battle, NCP’s Chhagan Bhujbal retained Yevla, though his winning margin halved from 2019 to 26,400 votes, despite campaigns targeting him by both Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange-Patil and NCP founder Sharad Pawar.
In Sindhudurg, where the undivided Sena’s influence had waned after Narayan Rane’s 2005 departure, the Mahayuti won all three seats. The Rane family saw particular success, with Nilesh Rane defeating two-time Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Vaibhav Naik in Kudal, while his brother Nitesh won Kankavli on a BJP ticket.
In Jalgaon district, the ruling alliance achieved a clean sweep of all 11 seats. Nashik too saw complete Mahayuti dominance, with Ajit Pawar’s NCP securing seven out of the 14 seats won by the alliance. Even in Navi Mumbai, traditionally dominated by the Naik family, the contest was incredibly close – BJP’s Manda Mhatre defeated NCP (SP)’s Sandeep Naik by just 377 votes in Belapur.
