2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election

2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election

← 2014 21 October 2019 Next →
All 288 seats to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly 145 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	61.44% ( 1.94%)
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Devendra Fadnavis Uddhav Thackeray Ajit Pawar Party BJP SHS NCP Alliance NDA NDA UPA Leader's seat Nagpur South West Did Not Contest Baramati Last election 122 63 41 Seats won 105 56 54 Seat change 17 7 13 Popular vote 14,199,375 9,049,789 9,216,919 Percentage 25.75% 16.41% 16.71% Swing 2.06 3.04 0.53   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Balasaheb Thorat Waris Pathan Raj Thackeray Party INC AIMIM MNS Alliance UPA Leader's seat Sangamner Byculla (Lost) Did Not Contest Last election 42 2 1 Seats won 44 2 1 Seat change 2 Popular vote 8,752,199 737,888 1,242,135 Percentage 15.87% 1.34% 2.25% Swing 2.07 0.41 0.92
All Party ResultsSeats Won by the Bharatiya Janata PartySeats won by the Shiv SenaSeats won by the NCPSeats won by the INCShow all
Chief Minister before election Devendra Fadnavis BJP Elected Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis BJP Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena Maha Vikas Aghadi

Seat share of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election 2019
  BJP (105),   SS (56),   NCP (54),   INC (44),   BVA (3),   AIMIM (2),   PJP (2),   SP (2),   KSP (1),   PWP (1),   SSS (1),   RSP (1),   JSS (1),   CPI(M) (1),   MNS (1),   Ind. (13)

The 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election was held on 21 October 2019 to elect all 288 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.^[1] After a 61.4% turnout in the election, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena (SHS) won a majority.^[2] Following differences over the government formation, the alliance was dissolved, precipitating a political crisis. Since a council of ministers had not been formed after no party could manage to form the government, President's rule was imposed in the state. On 23 November 2019, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister. However both of them resigned on 26 November 2019 before the floor test and on 28 November 2019, Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress formed the government under a new alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), with Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister.

Background[]

The results were out on 21 October 2019 with the Sena-BJP Alliance getting Majority, enough to form the government. But due to breakage of promise by BJP to Shiv Sena ,^{[citation needed]} The Alliance ended, with the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Indian National Congress forming the Government

Election schedule[]

Nagpur (South) voters gather to look up their names in voters' list on voting day morning.

The Election Commission announced the election dates for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra.^[3]

Political parties and campaign[]

National Democratic Alliance

Pre-election alliance of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was formed between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena (SHS). Later, however, SHS left NDA and formed Three-Party Alliance Government Maha Vikas Aghadi seeing inability to share power with each other.

United Progressive Alliance

Pre-election alliance of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was formed with Indian National Congress (INC) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). INC filled nominations on 145 seats and NCP on 123. Other parties that supported the UPA alliance were Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Saghtana (4 seats), the Peasants and Workers Party (6 seats), Samajwadi Party (3 seats), Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (3 seats) and Ravi Rana-led Swabhiman Sanghatana (1 seat). The opposition finalised common nominee of 2 seats of Mankhatao and Kothrud constituency.^[4] Peoples Republican Party (3 seats) and Bahujan Republican Socialist Party (2 seats) will be fielding their candidates on the symbols of INC and NCP.^[4] The Samajwadi Party later rescinded its support for the alliance, to contest for 7 seats separately instead.^[5] Shiv Sena later joined UPA after leaving NDA.

Others

Various prominent parties in the Maharashtra's political scenario did not join hands with either of the two alliances. This includes Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi that will be contesting all 288 seats.^[6] All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen will be contesting from 44 seats, mostly from Muslim predominant constituencies.^[7] Maharashtra Navnirman Sena will be contesting from 103 seats.^[8]

A total of 5543 nominations were received by Election Commission throughout the state of which about 3239 candidatures were left after others were rejected or had their nominations withdrawn. The Chiplun constituency has the least candidates (3 candidates), whereas Nanded South constituency had the maximum candidates (38 candidates).^[9]

Maha Yuti Campaign[]

On 30 September 2019, The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena announced that they have finalised their Seat sharing agreements with each other and agreed to fight under the banner of Alliance. Few days before, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had visited Matoshree (Uddhav Thackeray's Home) and met Uddhav Thackeray for the same.

The parties however were clashing on the subject of 50-50 CM sharing formula.

The campaign was led by Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray and then Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis.

Shiv Sena[]

Jan- Aashirwad Yatra[]

In order to expand the party's image and to improve its vote share within the state as well as in the Alliance, the Shiv Sena started Jan Aashirwad Yatra headed by party's youth icon and Yuva Sena Chief Aaditya Thackeray. Under this, Aditya Thackeray with his party cadres travelled city-to-city, village-to-village convincing people to vote in favour of his party and the Alliance.

Aditya Samwad[]

On par with the Jan Aashirwad Yatra, Aaditya Thackeray interacted with youth community across the state under the Aditya Samwad, there he addressed questions related common problems faced by today's generation and provided solutions for them. Aditya Samwad was promoted and supported by Indian Political Strategist Prashant Kishor and his company I-PAC.

Bharatiya Janata Party[]

Maha- Janadesh Yatra[]

The BJP launched the Maha- Janadesh Yatra headed by then incumbent CM and BJP Leader Devendra Fadnavis, State President Chandrakant Patil and Union Minister Rajnath Singh. Under the Yatra, the BJP hoped to approach more constituencies and voters.

Maha Aaghadi Campaign[]

On 16 September 2019, the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party sealed their deal for seat sharing arrangements for the elections, both the parties contested on 125 Seats and kept 38 seats for Independents/Smaller Parties, This comes after the INC-NCP lost many heavyweight leaders joining BJP-Sena.

Both the parties were unclear about the CM Candidate from the Alliance.

Nationalist Congress Party[]

Shiv Swarajya Yatra[]

The NCP flagged off the Shiv Swarajya Yatra from Shivneri,headed by Chief Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar and State President Jayant Patil, the Party hoped that it would reach maximum people that would help them to raise strong Anti-Incumbency. The campaign by the Nationalist Congress Party was seen as a try-hard campaign against the mighty Sena-BJP Alliance, which proved correct making the BJP-Sena losing vast constituencies against the Congress-NCP.

The NCP also managed to revive the itself by successfully gaining their stronghold Western Maharashtra back from the Sena-BJP Alliance, the lone-NCP was seen as the main and unexpected competitor against the Sena-BJP.

The Sena-BJP though managed to form the government for the second term, but lost core-ministers and constituencies to the NCP.

Indian National Congress[]

Pol Khol Yatra[]

The INC flagged off the Pol Khol Yatra headed by senior state party leaders like Ashok Chavan, State President Balasaheb Thorat and Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath.

The Pol Khol Yatra was intended to expose the ruling Government's failures and claims. The Yatra only little but helped the party in securing fate in Maharashtra.

Surveys and polls[]

Subsequent to the election, pre-polling and exit polling in all cases but one (India Today-Axis exit poll), was seen to have significantly over-estimated the vote share and seat projections to the ruling right-wing NDA coalition.^[11]

Vote share[]

Seat projections[]

Results[]

Parties and Coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Vote	%	+/-	Contested	Won	%	+/-
	Bharatiya Janata Party 106 / 288 (37%)	14,199,375	25.75	2.20	164	105	36.46	17
	Shiv Sena 58 / 288 (20%)	9,049,789	16.41	3.04	124	56	19.44	7
	Nationalist Congress Party 53 / 288 (18%)	9,216,919	16.71	0.62	121	54	18.75	13
	Indian National Congress 43 / 288 (15%)	8,752,199	15.87	2.17	147	44	15.28	2
	Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi 3 / 288 (1%)	368,735	0.67	0.05	31	3	1.04
	All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen 2 / 288 (0.7%)	737,888	1.34	0.41	44	2	0.69
	Samajwadi Party 2 / 288 (0.7%)	123,267	0.22	0.05	7	2	0.69	1
	Prahar Janshakti Party 2 / 288 (0.7%)	265,320	0.48	0.48	26	2	0.69
	Communist Party of India (Marxist) 1 / 288 (0.3%)	204,933	0.37	0.02	8	1	0.35
	Maharashtra Navnirman Sena 1 / 288 (0.3%)	1,242,135	2.25	0.90	101	1	0.35
	Peasants and Workers Party of India 1 / 288 (0.3%)	532,366	0.97	0.04	24	1	0.35	2
	Swabhimani Paksha 2 / 288 (0.7%)	221,637	0.40	0.26	5	1	0.35	1
	Jan Surajya Shakti	196,284	0.36	0.07	4	1	0.35	1
	Krantikari Shetkari Party	116,943	0.21	0.21	1	1	0.35
	Rashtriya Samaj Paksha 1 / 288 (0.3%)	81,169	0.15	0.34	6	1	0.35
	Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi	2,523,583	4.58	4.58	236	0	0.0
	Independents 13 / 288 (5%)	5,477,653	9.93	5.22	1400	13	4.51	6
	None of the above	742,135	1.35	0.43
Total		55,150,470	100.00		288	100.00	±0
Valid votes		55,150,470	99.91
Invalid votes		48,738	0.09
Votes cast / turnout		55,199,208	61.44
Abstentions		34,639,059	38.56
Registered voters		89,838,267

Region-wise break up[]

Region	Total seats	Bharatiya Janata Party		Shiv Sena		Nationalist Congress Party		Indian National Congress		Others
Western Maharashtra	70	20	04	5	08	27	08	12	02	6
Vidarbha	62	29	15	04		6	05	15	05	8
Marathwada	46	16	01	12	01	8		8		2
Thane+Konkan	39	11	01	15	01	5	03	0	02	7
Mumbai	36	16	01	14		1	01	4	01	1
North Maharashtra	35	13	01	6	01	8	03	4	03	4
Total[19]	288	105	-17	56	-7	54	+13	44	+2	29

Party		Western Maharashtra		Vidarbha		Marathwada		Thane+Konkan		Mumbai		North Maharashtra
	Bharatiya Janata Party	18 / 70 (26%)	06	30 / 62 (48%)	14	16 / 46 (35%)	01	11 / 39 (28%)	01	16 / 36 (44%)	01	14 / 35 (40%)
	Shiv Sena	8 / 70 (11%)	05	4 / 62 (6%)		11 / 46 (24%)		17 / 39 (44%)	03	14 / 36 (39%)		5 / 35 (14%)	02
	Nationalist Congress Party	28 / 70 (40%)	09	6 / 62 (10%)	05	8 / 46 (17%)		2 / 39 (5%)	06	1 / 36 (3%)	01	8 / 35 (23%)	05
	Indian National Congress	9 / 70 (13%)	01	15 / 62 (24%)	05	8 / 46 (17%)		2 / 39 (5%)	01	4 / 36 (11%)	01	4 / 35 (11%)	03
	Others	7 / 70 (10%)	3	7 / 70 (10%)	4	3 / 46 (7%)	4	7 / 39 (18%)	1	1 / 36 (3%)	1	4 / 35 (11%)	2

Region	Total Seats	National Democratic Alliance		United Progressive Alliance		Others
Western Maharashtra	70	11	26 / 70 (37%)	8	37 / 70 (53%)	3	7 / 70 (10%)
Vidarbha	62	14	34 / 62 (55%)	10	21 / 62 (34%)	4	7 / 70 (10%)
Marathwada	46	1	27 / 46 (59%)		17 / 46 (37%)	4	3 / 46 (7%)
Thane +Konkan	39	4	28 / 39 (72%)	5	4 / 39 (10%)	1	7 / 39 (18%)
Mumbai	36	1	30 / 36 (83%)		5 / 36 (14%)	1	1 / 36 (3%)
North Maharashtra	35	2	19 / 35 (54%)		12 / 35 (34%)	2	4 / 35 (11%)
Total		24	161 / 288 (56%)	15	98 / 288 (34%)	9	29 / 288 (10%)

Results by constituency[]

Aftermath[]

After declaration of election result on 24 October 2019, Shiv Sena declined to support BJP for the government formation demanding rotational Chief Ministers of both parties for 2.5 years each, which was promised by BJP during elections as claimed by Shiv Sena and withdrew from Maha-Yuti Alliance. As no political party was able to prove the majority in the assembly, the President's rule was imposed in the state following recommendation by the Governor on 12 November 2019.^[21][22]

Ultimately, the combination of largest legislative party BJP and a faction of the NCP agreed to form a grand coalition with Devendra Fadnavis returning as Chief Minister. Ajit Pawar of NCP was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister. But the NCP national leadership had rebuffed this move and announced that it will not support BJP. On Tue, 26 Nov, Devendra Fadnavis resigned at a press conference in Mumbai.

On Thursday, 28 November Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackarey was sworn in as chief minister. ^[23]

Bibliography[]

• Suryawanshi, Sudhir (17 May 2020). Checkmate : how the BJP won and lost Maharashtra. New Delhi, India. ISBN 978-0-14-349768-4. OCLC 1159899265.
• ^[24]

See also[]

• 2019 elections in India
• 2019 Indian general election in Maharashtra
• 2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly election
• Uddhav Thackeray ministry

References[]

Media related to 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election at Wikimedia Commons