Maharashtra has once again witnessed face-off between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The relationship between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena had turned unstable, but the parties patched up in February to announce a seat-sharing plan of 25 and 23 seats respectively to constitute the NDA. The people of India have given a strong mandate to Narendra Modi to lead the country for the next five years. As the counting of votes comes to an end, the BJP is all set to form the government at the Centre once again. As the BJP supporters celebrate across the country, the Congress camp is drowned in deafening silence, made louder by Rahul Gandhi’s defeat in Amethi against BJP’s firebrand leader Smriti Irani. However, Rahul won in Wayanad, Kerala. Many other BJP contenders in the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Gujarat made their victory mark. The BJP’s performance has been close to clean sweeps in most of these states. Modi won by the massive margin in Varanasi. He has congratulated the people of India for their mandate and assured to “build a strong and inclusive India”. Except for Punjab, the Congress party has not been able to stop the BJP.
Some of the key candidates are Union Minister Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur who won his seat whereas Sushilkumar Shinde (INC), Ashok Chavan (INC) could not save their seat, Poonam Mahajan (BJP) won with a huge margin against Priya Dutt. Urmila Matondkar lost it. Polling in the State was held in four phases – April 11 (7 seats), April 18 (10 seats), April 23 (14 seats) and April 29 (17 seats). The overall voter turnout was 63.04 per cent. Pawars retained Baramati but crashed in Maval.
While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena combine failed to breach Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s bastion of Baramati, the saffron alliance succeeded in dealing a severe blow to the prestige of the Pawar clan in Maval. While Pawar’s daughter, two-time NCP Member of Parliament (MP) Supriya Sule is home and dry in the Baramati lead by a handsome margin of more than 1.5 lakh votes, his grand-nephew Parth Pawar – who is senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s son — has been comprehensively knocked out of the contest in his political debut in Maval. Actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar, who contested the Lok Sabha elections for the first time, has reported a glitch in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in Magathane constituency.
The politician has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and alleged that the signature on form EVM 17C was not matching the machine’s number.
Merely a few hours before the election results being announced, star campaigners, including celebrities, cabinet ministers, incumbent MLAs, and dynastic leaders have retained their leading positions, with a steady rise in their victory margin. Some, however, have started falling behind.
In the Mumbai South constituency, the newly appointed Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora could not win his seat against Shiv Sena’s strongest contender and his opponent Arvind Sawant who won. BJP has edge over Shinde in Solapur. Shinde, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate, faced two formidable opponents: Dr Jai Siddheshwar Shivacharya Swami, the Lingayat seer who was cannily propped up by the BJP, and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi leader Prakash Ambedkar, whose entry into the fray is proving to be a major spoiler for Shinde. While the Swami has taken a lead over Shinde, Ambedkar has secured a little over 30,000 votes, eating into the Congress’ traditional Dalit-Muslim vote bank and threatening to spoil Shinde’s chances. Alliance with the Congress-NCP proving costly for Raju Shetti, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress in this general election is proving to be costly for two-time Member of Parliament (MP) and Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti. The farmers’ leader is trailed behind the Shiv Sena’s Dhairyasheel Mane in the Hatkananagale constituency in Kolhapur district. Mane has secured a huge lead over Shetti. After Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh chief Prakash Ambedkar joined hands with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) to form the VBA ahead of Lok Sabha elections, the VBA was in talks with Congress-NCP to form an alliance. However, the talks fell through, following which VBA decided to contest independently in Maharashtra. VBA has made a large dent in the traditional Congress-NCP vote bank in Maharashtra.
In Amravati, VBA candidate Gunwant Deopare has clocked 18558 votes, a 5.82 per cent vote share. The contest is a close one between Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul and independent candidate Navnit Rana. In Buldhana, even though the main contest is between Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav and NCP’s Rajendra Shingne where Jadhav is leading, VBA’s Siraskar Baliram Bhagwan has clocked 47051 votes, a 14.69 per cent vote share. All together, Shiv Sena and BJP gave a good show, anyways this election was to choose Prime Minister of the nation and people once again gave a mandate to Narendra Modi.
Our heartiest congratulations to BJP and Modi Ji!
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
