Maharashtra Assembly Election Results: BJP’s Victory

• The BJP alliance, including NCP Ajit Pawar and Shiv Sena faction, secured nearly 50% of the vote share in the Maharashtra Assembly election.

• The Mahayuti alliance increased its vote share across all regions, while Maha Vikas Aghadi, an alliance of Congress, Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, saw its support decline.

• The BJP won 132 seats, nearly five times the total of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which was limited to 50 seats.

• The victory in Maharashtra reinforces the authority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the BJP, despite the party’s loss in Jharkhand.

• The BJP countered Congress’s call for a caste census and its line about the Constitution being in danger.

• Welfare schemes, particularly cash doles for women, worked in the Mahayuti’s favor.

• Uddhav Thackeray was punished for aligning with the Congress and NCP, while Sharad Pawar’s political base was eroded.

• Maharashtra’s provincial politics has yielded to the BJP’s Hindutva platform, which also has a strand of Maratha language pride and a regional iconography.