Decoding the Maharashtra poll verdict: What changed between June and November 2024?

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA) won 30 out of the 48 seats, while the Maha Yuti could get only 17 seats. But in the just concluded Assembly elections, the Maha Yuti won a landslide, with 235 out of the 288 seats. The Maha Yuti alliance’s main constituent, the BJP alone won 132 seats, with the other two, the (Ajit Pawar-led) NCP and the (Eknath Shinde-led) Shiv Sena garnering 41 and 57 seats respectively.

None of the MVA parties could win enough seats to even qualify for the position of leader of the Opposition – the first time this has happened in six decades. The Shiva Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) got 20 seats, the Congress won 16, and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) won 10 seats respectively.

So, what changed so dramatically in a matter of five months – from June to November 2024 -- that the Maha Yuti swept the state? How serious are the MVA’s complaints that question a post-5pm voter surge and the data mismatches between votes polled and counted?

Guest: Vinaya Deshpande, The Hindu’s Maharashtra Chief of Bureau.

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu.

Edited by Jude Francis Weston