At a combined vote share of 51 per cent, BJP-Sena way ahead of the competition in Maharashtra

New Delhi, Oct 01: The BJP and Shiv Sena are fighting the Maharashtra elections together and if one were to go by their joint share in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the parties are way ahead of the competition.

Winning 41 of the 48 parliamentary seats in 2019, the BJP and Shiv Sena had a combined vote share of 51 per cent. The BJP won 25 of the 25 seats with a vote share of 28 per cent. In the case of the Shiv Sena, the vote share was 23 per cent and the party won 18 of the 23 Lok Sabha seats that it contested.

The 2014 numbers:

In the 2014 parliamentary polls, the alliance won the same number of seats, but the vote share was 55 per cent. However, the alliance would not consider the 2015 vote share to be a failure, considering the fact that it was battling a lot of issues such as rural distress among other issues.

Now coming to the Congress-NCP, the alliance in 2014 secured a vote share of 32 per cent.

16 per cent a piece:

With 16 per cent a piece, the two parties could manage to win just 5 seats. The Congress won just one, while the NCP bagged 4. The worries in particular for the Congress are high.

The party which once dominated the state finds itself on slippery ground. To top it, top leaders such as Sushil Kumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan lost the 2019 LS polls. In the case of the NCP, it would take solace from the fact that it still has a hold in Western Maharashtra, from where it won the 4 parliamentary seats.

How they fared last time:

In the 2014 assembly elections, the BJP and Shiv Sena contested independently, despite being together for the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP contested on 260 of the 288 seats and won 122. The Shiv Sena on the other hand contested on 282 seats and managed to win 63. However, the two parties came together and formed the alliance after the elections.
The Congress and NCP on the other hand managed to secure 42 and 41 seats respectively.

Vote share:

In terms of vote share, the BJP had a vote share of 27.81 per cent in the 2014 assembly elections. The Shiv Sena, on the other hand, bagged a vote share of 19.35 per cent. Congress and NCP, on the other hand, ended up with a vote share of 17.95 and 17.24 per cent respectively.