BJP holds Maharashtra, but with fewer seats of its own
What happened
Bharatiya Janata Party held onto power in Maharashtra, though its own seat count slipped from the election before.
It won 105 seats, short of the 145-seat majority mark.
Its alliance, the Mahayuti — a group of parties that team up to fight an election together and share power afterward if they win enough seats between them — cleared that mark with 161 seats.
The campaign
The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi's alliance with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen ended on 6 September 2019, after AIMIM sought 100 of Maharashtra's 288 seats and the VBA offered eight. The two parties contested the election separately.1
On 16 September 2019 the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party sealed their own seat-sharing pact, each contesting 125 seats and setting aside 38 for independents and smaller allies.2
The Election Commission notified the poll on 27 September, with nominations closing on 4 October, withdrawal by 7 October, a single phase of voting on 21 October, and counting scheduled for 24 October.3
On 30 September 2019 the BJP and Shiv Sena finalised their own seat-sharing agreement, contesting under the Maha Yuti banner with the BJP taking 152 seats and Shiv Sena 124.4
In October, Aaditya Thackeray became the first member of the Thackeray family to contest an election, standing for Shiv Sena from Worli in Mumbai. The VBA contested all 288 seats, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena fielded candidates in 103 seats, and the AIMIM contested 44 seats, mostly in Muslim-majority constituencies.56
- 1VBA-AIMIM Alliance Ends Ahead of Assembly Poll — Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi
- 2Congress and NCP Seal Seat-Sharing Pact — 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
- 3Election Commission Notifies Maharashtra Assembly Poll — 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
- 4BJP and Shiv Sena Finalize Maha Yuti Seat-Sharing Deal — 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
- 5Aaditya Thackeray Becomes First Thackeray to Contest an Election — Aaditya Thackeray
- 6VBA, MNS and AIMIM Field Independent Slates — 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election
What changed
The single biggest shift at the constituency level ran from BJP to Nationalist Congress Party.
17 of the 123 seats that changed hands did so this way.
BJP itself went from 122 seats to 105 seats this time.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, moved -1.9 pp from the previous election.
Notable numbers
The closest race was at Chandivali, Maharashtra, decided by 409 votes.
Palus-Kadegaon, Maharashtra was won by 73.1% of the vote, the biggest winning gap of the election.
Karvir, Maharashtra had the highest turnout of any seat, 84.3%, and also drew the most candidates, 38.
7,42,134 voters chose NOTA — "None of the Above," a ballot option letting them formally reject every candidate on offer — making up 1.3% of the vote statewide.
The backdrop
BJP extended its own run of victories in the state.
This marked 2 elections in a row that it finished with the most seats in the state.