A year after its stinging defeat in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is still struggling to keep its flock together, with 47 of its runner-up candidates having crossed over to the ruling Mahayuti, most of them to the BJP.
An analysis of figures by The Indian Express shows that of these 47 runners-up, 27 have defected to the BJP while its Mahayuti partners — the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena — have inducted 13 and 7 candidates, respectively.
In the 2024 Assembly polls, the Mahayuti won 235 of the state’s 288 seats. The BJP bagged 132 seats, while the Sena and the NCP secured 57 and 41 seats, respectively. The MVA could manage to get just 50 seats with its major allies, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) winning 20, 16, and 10 seats, respectively.
These defections have largely taken place in belts traditionally seen as the Sena (UBT) strongholds.
Clearly, in the wake of their landslide victory in the Assembly polls, the Mahayuti parties have pressed ahead with their efforts to consolidate their bases. “It (inducting Opposition leaders) serves multiple purposes. By poaching runner-ups, the possibility of the Opposition fighting back is eliminated as it gets weakened further. There are seats where ruling parties have poached leaders from areas where their allies have won. It is a part of internal politics that also helps to keep a check while planning for the 2029 Assembly polls,” a senior NCP leader said.
Among the MVA constituents, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has been the worst hit by these defections, with 19 of its runner-up candidates switching to the Mahayuti camp after the polls. The NCP(SP) has lost 13 candidates to the ruling coalition, while the Congress has suffered the defection of 10 such leaders. Three MVA-backed Independents and one runner-up from the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) have also crossed over to the Mahayuti.
NCP(SP) candidate Salil Deshmukh, who finished second in the Katol Assembly seat, has resigned from his party last week, although he has yet to spell out his future plans. So, his name is not included in the list of 47 defectors.
Mahayuti’s focus on regions
A region-wise analysis of the above list shows that the BJP has focused largely on the Marathwada, North Maharashtra and Konkan regions.
Marathwada has seen 16 MVA runner-ups switch loyalties, with half of them joining the BJP. Five have defected to the NCP, and the remaining three have joined the Sena.
Of the 11 MVA candidates who joined the Mahayuti in North Maharashtra, 10 have joined the BJP. The remaining one, Gulabrao Deokar, who finished runner-up on the NCP(SP)’s ticket to the Sena candidate in the Jalgaon Rural seat, has switched to the NCP.
In Konkan, a traditional bastion of the Sena (UBT), five of the 10 MVA runner-ups have joined the BJP. The Sena has inducted three of these turncoats, while the remaining two have joined the NCP.
“The BJP has no talent and lacks leaders with mass support. They need imported leaders to contest polls. They are pressuring leaders through central agencies like the CBI and ED. BJP now stands for Bogus Janata Party,” Sena (UBT) spokesperson Harshal Pradhan alleged.
Ajit Pawar appears to be concentrating on his strongholds in Marathwada and Western Maharashtra. Of the 13 leaders his NCP has inducted, nine are from these two regions (five from Marathwada and four from Western Maharashtra). Six of these defectors are from the NCP(SP), three from the Congress, and two from the Sena (UBT). Two Independents have also joined the party.
In the case of the Sena, three of the five Sena (UBT) runner-ups who have joined its ranks are from Konkan, while the other two are from Marathwada. The Sena has also inducted one leader each from the Congress – former Kasba Peth MLA Ravindra Dhangekar – and the NCP(SP) – ex-Udgir MLA Sudhakar Bhalerao.
