BJP takes charge of Maharashtra as its old alliances collapse
What happened
The Bharatiya Janata Party took charge of Maharashtra's government, replacing the outgoing Indian National Congress.
It won 122 of the 288 seats, short of the 145-seat majority mark on its own.
Its nearest rival, the Shiv Sena, took 63 seats.
The BJP took 27.8% of the vote to the SHS's 19.4%.
The campaign
The BJP first sought 144 seats from its 25-year ally Shiv Sena, then reduced its demand to 130; Shiv Sena offered it 119, keeping 151 for itself and 18 for four smaller allies. Talks failed and the alliance ended on 25 September.1
The same day, the Nationalist Congress Party, which had sought 144 seats and a rotating Chief Minister post, ended its own 15-year alliance with the Indian National Congress after Congress announced a list of 118 candidates without consulting it.2
Congress, led in the state by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan with Narayan Rane heading its campaign committee, had opened its own campaign on 1 September at Hutatma Chowk in Mumbai.3
The NCP had launched its campaign in Kolhapur on 16 September, with party founder Sharad Pawar present, weeks before breaking with Congress.4
Two days after its own split, Shiv Sena opened its solo campaign at Mumbai's Mahalaxmi Racecourse on 27 September, with Uddhav Thackeray addressing supporters as the party contested independently for the first time in 25 years; the BJP held its own rally at the same venue, addressed by Narendra Modi after his return from the United Nations General Assembly.56
- 1BJP-Shiv Sena 25-Year Alliance Collapses Over Seat-Sharing — 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
- 2NCP Ends 15-Year Alliance With Congress After Unilateral Candidate List — 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
- 3Congress Opens Maharashtra Campaign at Hutatma Chowk — 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
- 4NCP Launches Campaign in Kolhapur With Sharad Pawar — 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
- 5Shiv Sena Opens Solo Campaign at Mahalaxmi Racecourse — 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
- 6Modi Rallies for BJP at Mahalaxmi Racecourse After UNGA Trip — 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
What changed
The BJP made its biggest jump of the election.
It grew from 46 seats at the previous election to 122 seats this time.
The single biggest movement ran from the INC to the BJP, covering 34 of the 160 seats that changed hands.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, moved +3.7 pp from the previous election.
Notable numbers
Shrivardhan, Maharashtra saw the tightest finish of the election: the margin — how far ahead the winner finished, over whoever came second — was 77 votes.
Malabar Hill, Maharashtra saw the widest margin of the election, at 47.1% of the vote.
Karvir, Maharashtra recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 84.3%.
Nanded South, Maharashtra drew the most candidates of any seat, 39 names on the ballot.
The backdrop
A Shiv Sena-BJP alliance had already formed Maharashtra's first non-Congress state government once before, in 1995.7
That alliance won a combined 138 of 288 assembly seats, and Manohar Joshi of Shiv Sena became Chief Minister.7
- 7Shiv Sena–BJP Alliance Forms First Non-Congress Government — 1995 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election