Responding to NCP SP Chief Sharad Pawar’s comments on Mahayuti stating that the alliance emerged victorious in the state Assembly elections, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Sunday. Fadnavis appealed to the opposition parties to “accept defeat” and “reflect” as to why they tasted a humiliating defeat, against Pawar’s arguments that the mapping of seats to parties did not tally with the vote share.
Earlier, Sharad Pawar had expressed his surprise at the difference between votes secured and the number of seats garnered. His party polled more votes than Congress allies, yet they have not gained as many seats as the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) or Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction). This, stated Pawar, brought doubts to the legitimacy of the elections.
Fadnavis came up with historical arguments to remind the AAP that in some elections, abrasive vote shares do not mean handsome seat wins. He used the example of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where the BJP had polled 1,49,13,914 votes but could only manage nine. Congress scored 96,41,856 votes and emerged the winner in 13 constituencies. Likewise, Shiv Sena polled 73,77,674 votes and was granted seven seats, while the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) polled 58,51,166 votes and won only eight seats.
He drew attention to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, citing the vote share of the Congress party, which retained 87,92,237 votes, though it got only one seat while the then-united NCP achieved a mere 83,87,363 votes and won four seats. “Thus, if you are willing to accept defeat, you will make progress rapidly. It was hilarious, and I hope you will at least advise your colleagues to introspect,” he said in a post on the microblogging site X (Twitter).
In the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections, the BJP, which leads the Mahayuti Alliance, won 230 out of the 288 seats. Other important alliance partners also had a worthy show, with NCP (Ajit Pawar group) coming out 41 members while Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde camp) got elected 57.
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