Maharashtra: Shiv Sena Keen to Assert Dominance as BJP Licks Wounds

Sena’s demands, now, are clearer than ever.

If it is anything to go by, Friday’s edition of Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamna has made it clear that the party is not going to let the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) sail smooth in Maharashtra.

In a sort of a wordplay, the paper’s headline declares: “Maharashtracha mahajanadesh yutilach” with the second ‘maha’ struck off in red. The BJP’s campaign in the state was called ‘mahajanadesh,’ which translates to ‘massive people’s mandate’.

The newspaper has thus openly taken a dig at the BJP and claimed that the mandate has come as a rap on the knuckles of those who have showed what many have called the “arrogance of power”.

Putting an end to all speculation, the Sena yesterday, October 24, announced that it would stay in the alliance with the BJP…but not before making its demands clearer than ever. After all, one thing is certain that the Sena has the number (56 seats) and the BJP which won 105 out of the total 288 seats would not be able to form the government in the state without them. 

Friday’s ‘Saamna’.

“Maharashtra doesn’t accept arrogance of power,” the editorial said and further added that the party’s feet were always on the ground. “The key to political power is in the hands of Shiv Sena this time,” the headline announced. 

The party reminded the BJP that before the polls, the two parties had decided on a 50- 50 pact right at the time of the Lok Sabha elections in April and that the Sena would stick to that. “Due to some arithmetic compulsions, we had agreed to contest on only 124 seats. But we (Sena) won’t be making such compromises time and again,” Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray told the media soon after the results were declared. 

Although the Sena has an upper hand in the alliance this time, both parties have faired badly in comparison with the 2014 mandate. If the Sena thinks the BJP’s arrogance failed it in several constituencies, there are at least seven strong constituencies where the Sena has failed to make a mark.  

Weaker mandate

In 2014, the BJP had won 122 seats without an alliance. At 105, the party has lost out on 17 of them.

The Sena, while giving the BJP a hard time, has seen its own performance get relatively poorer than the 2014 election, when it won 63 seats.

The Sena has lost some of its crucial seats and is down to 56 this time. The most shocking defeat for the party came in Bandra East, where the Thackeray family resides. Sena candidate and Mumbai mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar lost to Congress’s Zeeshan Siddique by around 6,000 votes. 

Some interesting facts have emerged from the results. Some of the most aggressive tactics like the massive poaching exercise and the hyper-nationalistic tone taken by the BJP in its campaign have clearly not borne dividends.

Out of the 35 defectors — all prominent names and all with a longstanding association with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — who left to join the Sena and BJP, at least 19 have lost from their respective constituencies. Two prominent leaders, Pandurang Barora and Nirmala Gavit, who had joined Shiv Sena just days before the polls after defecting from the NCP and the Congress respectively, lost from their strong Shahpur and Igatpuri seats. 

Also read: For BJP, a Bitter Reminder That Assembly Polls Are Fought on Local Issues

An even bigger defeat came for former minister Harshvardhan Patil who decided to switch over to BJP from Congress but lost to Duttatray Bharane, an NCP candidate. Patil was considered to be a Congress loyalist and his move had come as a major shock for the party. Similarly, Vaibhav Pichad, who ditched the NCP to join Sena too lost to NCP’s Kiran Lahamate.

Sources in the BJP say that the party considers this as to be a major setback and many within its ranks feel that such a situation was completely avoidable. “In most of these seats BJP had a stronghold and we could have easily made a comeback. The decision to change candidates at the last minute and to place the defectors as candidates on those seats seem to not have gone well with the voters,” a BJP leader told The Wire. Similar responses were received from Sena leaders too. 

Fading glory in Nagpur

In 2014, BJP’s performance in Nagpur district was among its crowning achievements. In chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ hometown, the party had bagged 11 out of the 12 seats. This time, however, the party managed to retain only six of them, losing five seats to the Congress and NCP. One seat was won by an independent candidate. 

Fadnavis, who had toured to nearly 200 constituencies had spent most of his time campaigning in Nagpur district and so, this anti-BJP mandate hurts him the most. Apart from Fadnavis, who won from Nagpur South West with a margin of over 50,000 votes against Congress’s Ashish Deshmukh, the city is also the hometown of another BJP heavyweight Nitin Gadkari, a senior Union minister. 


Ministers who lost

While the saffron combine had boasted of excessive candidates and had claimed the two parties were spoilt for choice, as many as nine of their existing ministers have embarrassed the parties with their poor performance. 

Among those who lost is Pankaja Munde, minister for Rural Development and Women and Child Welfare. Munde lost to her estranged cousin and NCP candidate Dhananjay Munde by a margin of almost 30,000 votes. 

Two cabinet and seven other ministers of state have in all failed to win in the state election and the losing margin too is steep.

BJP and Shiv Sena workers celebrate their victory in Maharashtra assembly elections at Agri Koli Bhavan, Nerul, in Navi Mumbai. Photo: PTI

Sanjay Bhegade, minister for Labour, Environment, Relief and Rehabilitation, lost to NCP’s Sunil Shelke by a margin of 95,000 votes in Maval constituency. Bhegade, a 43-year-old minister was a close confidante of Fadnavis’s.

Another minister Ram Shinde, who has been an MLA in Karjat-Jamkhed for 25 years, lost to NCP’s Rohit Pawar by a margin of over 40,000 votes. Shinde’s fall was well scripted and Rohit, who is NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s grand nephew, was intentionally fielded from this post.

“It was clear that Shinde’s charm was fading in his constituency and it was essential that Rohit was fielded from BJP’s stronghold to leave a mark,” shared Rohit’s campaign planner. 


Similar defeats were suffered in Pune’s Purandar constituency where Sena’s Vijay Shivtare, the minister for Water Resources, suffered a crushing defeat against Congress’s Sanjay Jagtap. In Jalna, another Sena minister Arjun Khotkar was defeated by Congress candidate Kailas Gorantyal. 

No impact in western Maharashtra 

Along with the struggle relevant in the election, the NCP’s biggest challenge was also to regain its lost turf in western Maharashtra, the party’s original bastion which had lately been seen moving closer to the BJP. But Pawar had his eyes trained on the region and perhaps as a result, the party managed to win around 26 seats out of the total 54, from the western Maharashtra region alone. 

Also read: The Enduring Relevance of Sharad Pawar

Out of the total 19 seats that the BJP lost, most seats were from western Maharashtra.

“The party had tried to field Maratha and Brahmin candidates from this region. While it is true that the community’s population is highest here, it is also true that the community organically favours the NCP over others. And Pawar’s resurgence in this election, coupled with the BJPs inefficient handling of flood in the region hurt the ruling party,” added one of NCP’s campaign managers.