Maharashtra Assembly Polls: Narrow margins highlight close contests todayheadline

Around 63 seats in the Maharashtra assembly polls were won by a margin of 10,000 or less, with 33 seats having been won by 5,000 or less votes. The opposition tally could have been more disastrous as the numbers show.

An analysis of the results show that the ‘Ladki Bahin’ scheme, the reverse caste polarisation due to the MVA overplaying the Maratha card and the work done by the Sangh led to increased voting for the Mahayuti.

The BJP has 17 candidates who won by a margin of 10,000 votes and less. Of these, 10 won by a margin of 5,000 votes and less. In these seats, the BJP benefited due to the votes being divided between the opposition parties.

The BJP has also lost several seats by very small margins. For instance, it lost the Karjat Jamkhed seat to NCP(SP)’s Rohit Pawar by just 1,243 votes. In Versova, its candidate Bharti Lavekar lost by 1,600 votes to the Sena (UBT) candidate.

For Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, the elections would come as a wakeup call. Even though his party got 20 seats, 10 of them have come with a winning margin of less than 10,000 votes, which includes the victory margin of Aaditya Thackeray from Worli. Three of the 10 candidates of NCP (SP) won with a margin of around 5,000 votes and less.