Lok Sabha election results 2019: In 2014 encore, BJP-Shiv Sena sweeps Mumbai, Maharashtra

MUMBAI: Despite an acute farm crisis, the Maratha quota stir and Dalit-Maratha tensions, Maharashtra’s voters stood steadfastly by BJP-Shiv Sena, giving it 41 of the state’s 48 seats and playing a key role in Modi’s return. Congress saw its worst performance ever in the region of its birth, winning just one seat, and NCP clawed to four seats. AIMIM made a successful LS debut in the state, winning the Aurangabad seat.
The saffron allies together and individually matched their 2014 tally, with the BJP bagging 23 and the Sena 18 (one more seat in 2014 was won by ally Raju Shetti).Ditto with NCP, which also had the poor consolation of an Independent backed by it capturing Amravati. But Congress had nothing to feel good about. It had won two seats last time, and this time’s sole winner (from Chandrapur) is an ex-Sena legislator, Suresh Dhanorkar, who joined Congress just before the polls.
As in 2014, the BJP-Sena combine made a clean sweep in Mumbai, winning all six seats. The rout raises serious questions for Congress-NCP while brightening the BJP-Sena’s prospects for the assembly polls this year and strengthening CM Fadnavis’s claim over the top post.
BJP, Sena deal NCP a bitter blow in sugar belt
Among the veterans trounced were ex-CM and state Congress chief Ashok Chavan from Nanded, a family stronghold, and ex-Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde from hometown Solapur. Chavan lost to BJP’s Pratap Chikhalikar and Shinde to BJP’s Jai Sidheshwar Acharya, a Lingayat guru. Two Union ministers --Hansraj Ahir (BJP) and Anant Geete (Sena)-–too were defeated, as were Sharad Pawar’s grand-nephew Parth and actor Urmila Matondkar (Congress).
Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, food and civil supplies minister Girish Bapat and Congress-NCP “turncoat" Sujay Vikhe Patil were elected from Nagpur, Pune and Ahmednagar respectively, while the victory of MIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel against four-term Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire came as a surprise.
Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar, who had formed the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi with MIM, lost both seats he was contesting from – Solapur and Akola.
However, Ashok Chavan alleged that the VBA had damaged Congress prospects in 11 seats.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s high-profile and highdecibel campaign against PM Modi and the BJP too failed miserably, with hardly any Congress-NCP candidates benefiting, including in Mumbai.
The BJP and Sena made serious inroads in western Maharashtra, winning 5 and 4 seats respectively of the total 12 there. The other three went to NCP whose dominance of the sugar belt, already shaken in 2014, looks even weaker now.
Uddhav Thackeray’s lastminute decision to make amends with BJP and join hands with the Modi-Shah combine has benefited the Sena in a big way. And Fadnavis, in particular, has emerged much stronger. Ever since he became CM in 2014, the Congress and NCP have failed to make an impact in the state, losing all zilla parishad elections and most municipal corporations and councils as well as by-elections to the Lok Sabha.
The rapprochement with Uddhav, the Rs 34,000 crore loan waiver scheme, the Jalyukt Shivar irrigation scheme, and the move to bring in reservation for Marathas in jobs and education and at the same time pacify the Dalit community over key issues all worked for Fadnavis. The BJP also belied the perception that the beef ban that impacted Dalits and Muslims and notebandi and GST implementation that hurt the poor and middle-classes would make it hard for it to deal with the anti-incumbency factor.
The CM’s tactical move to engineer defections of prominent Congress and NCP leaders to capture Cong-NCP strongholds in western Maharashtra also paid off. Fadnavis was instrumental in ensuring the entry of the Vijaysingh Mohite-Patil clan into the BJP and also of Sujay Vikhe Patil, son of leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil.