Maha Assembly polls: BJP vote share doubles from 46 seats in 2009 to 122

Mumbai: The vote share of BJP in Maharashtra Assembly elections doubled compared to that in 2009 to help catapult its tally from 46 to 122 seats in a five-cornered contest and it was also marginally higher than it got in the May Lok Sabha polls. The BJP’s vote share in the just concluded polls was 27.8 percent that saw it emerge as the single largest party compared to 14.02 percent in 2009, according to Election Commission data. The BJP on its own was 23 seats short of a majority in an election marked by neck and neck contests. [caption id=“attachment_1764421” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] In the May Lok Sabha elections when it was in alliance with Shiv Sena while the Congress and NCP fought together, the BJP got 27.3 percent of the votes to bag 23 of the 48 seats at stake. With 4,119 candidates in the fray, BJP had fielded 280, Congress 287, NCP 278, Shiv Sena 282, BSP 260, MNS 219 CPI 34 and CPM 19 nominees. In the case of BJP’s erstwhile ally Shiv Sena, a three percent rise from 16.26 per cent to 19.4 percent was enough to nearly double its seats to 63 from 33 in 2009. The Sena polled 20.6 percent to get 18 seats. A three percent swing in votes against the Congress cost 40 seats for the party. As against 82(21.01 percent) in 2009, the Congress kitty slumped to 42(17.9 percent). The Congress got just two seats despite polling 18.1 percent votes in the recent Lok Sabha elections. However, the vote share of Congress’ erstwhile ally NCP rose marginally to 17.3 per cent from 16.37 percent but that did not translate into more seats apparently because of the multi-cornered contests. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP won 41 as against 62 in the previous elections. It got four Lok Sabha seats polling 16 percent votes. The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena(MNS) secured 3.1 percent of the votes but could get only one seat. PTI