Maharashtra Elections 2024: The Mahayuti’s massive win in Maharashtra was the big story from the latest election season, even as the Opposition managed to retain Jharkhand with a decisive majority.
Led by the BJP’s 132 seats, the Mahayuti looked set to wrest 236 seats in the 288-seat Maharashtra assembly, reducing the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to 48. In Jharkhand, the I.N.D.I.A bloc, led by regional party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), wrested 56 of the state’s 81 seats, with the BJP-led NDA getting 24.
Addressing party workers at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, PM Narendra Modi said the Maharashtra result was a vote for stability. Training his guns on the Congress, he added, “The Congress has become a parasitic party that also destroys its allies, which can be seen in Maharashtra. It cannot form any state government on its own. Their allies lost every one seat in five, their strike rate is lower than 20%. Congress drowns and takes its allies with it.”
In a post on X, he congratulated the “JMM-led alliance for their performance” in Jharkhand. “I thank the people of Jharkhand for their support towards us. We will always be at the forefront of raising people’s issues and working for the state,” he said.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said the party would analyse the Maharashtra results. “The results of Maharashtra are unexpected and we will analyse them in detail,” he stated in a post on X. “Thanks to all the voter brothers and sisters of the state for their support and to all the workers for their hard work.”
JMM chief Hemant Soren acknowledged his win in a post on X. Starting his post with “Johar”, a greeting used among tribal communities in Jharkhand and a few other states, he said, “Johar to all the people of Jharkhand. Come, let us walk together and take a pledge to build Golden Jharkhand.”
He ended the post with “Hail Constitution! Hail democracy! Hail Jharkhand!”
While Hemant Soren is expected to retain the CM’s chair in Jharkhand, discussions will be held among the three Mahayuti constituents on who will hold the post in Maharashtra. Both Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP said there were no differences in the alliance on the matter.
What Worked For Winners In 2 States
The three major constituents of the Mahayuti are the BJP, the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). According to the Election Commission, their voteshare was: 26.77% for the BJP, 12.38% for the Shiv Sena, and 9% for the NCP. In the MVA, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) got 9.96% of the vote, the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) got 11.28%, and the Congress, 12.42%.
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The Mahayuti leaders credited their win to the government’s flagship ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’, as well as other initiatives of the ‘double-engine ki sarkar’. PM Modi also said the Congress-led Opposition’s divisive caste census rhetoric had failed to impress voters, who had instead given their mandate to the BJP’s “ek hain toh safe hain” slogan.
In Jharkhand, among the three major constituents of the ruling alliance, the JMM got 23.44% of the voteshare. The Congress got 15.56%, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) got 3.44%.
In the NDA, among the major constituents, the voteshare was 33.18% for the BJP, and 3.54% for the AJSU Party.
The JMM-led alliance’s win has been attributed to the coalition’s grassroots and tribal outreach. The BJP’s polarisation campaign targeting alleged infiltration from Bangladesh doesn’t seem to have impressed voters.