Mumbai: The Mahayuti won 21 of 29 Scheduled Caste-reserved and 21 of 24 Scheduled Tribe-reserved seats in the Maharashtra assembly polls.
The ruling alliance’s sweep of these seats comes just months after the Lok Sabha polls during which the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) led a campaign that the BJP-led NDA was aiming to win over 400 seats in order to change the Constitution and end reservations for SCs and STs.
Of the 21 ST-reserved seats the Mahayuti won, 10 went into the kitty of the BJP, six to the Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and five to Ajit Pawar-led NCP. For the MVA, the Congress managed to win two of ST-reserved seats while one went to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
In 2019, the BJP-led NDA won 12 of these 24 seats, while nine went to the then United Progressive Alliance, which had the Congress and undivided NCP as its main constituents. The remaining three were bagged by CPM, Prahar Janshakti Party and an independent candidate.
In 2019, the BJP and undivided Shiv Sena were the main constituents of the NDA in the state. The two parties broke their alliance some months later after the assembly polls.
Of the 21 SC-reserved seats won by the Mahayuti in 2024, nine went to the BJP, five to the Shiv Sena and six to the NCP. One seat was won by Jan Surajya Shakti.
The MVA managed to emerge victorious on eight SC-reserved seatss. Of these, the Congress bagged four, while the NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) got two each.
