As many as 15 candidates from the ruling Mahayuti alliance breached the 1-lakh vote victory margin threshold, with Kashiram Vechan Pawara of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) topping the list. He secured Shirpur by a record-breaking margin of 145,944 votes.
The Mahayuti comprises the BJP, Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.
Chief minister Shinde and his deputy Ajit were among those who crossed the threshold in their respective strongholds, Kopri-Pachpakhadi and Baramati. The 15 candidates included eight from the BJP, four from Ajit Pawar-led NCP, and three from Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction.
From the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), no candidate managed a 1-lakh victory margin, although some came close, with margins hovering around 90,000 votes.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance consists of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).
Other BJP candidates who achieved landslide victories included Shivendraraje Bhonsale, who defeated his nearest rival in Satara by 1.42 lakh votes, Kewalram Kale (106,859 votes from Melghat), Dilip Borse (129,297 votes from Baglan), Sanjay Upadhyay (100,257 votes from Borivali), Shankar Jagtap (103,865 votes from Chinchwad), Chandrakant Patil (112,041 votes from Kothrud), and Krishan Khopde (115,288 votes from Nagpur East).
Ajit defeated his nephew and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate Yugendra Pawar in Baramati by 100,899 votes. However, this margin was significantly lower than the 1.65 lakh votes he had secured in 2019. Others from his faction who made the 1-lakh club were Sunil Shelke (108,565 votes from Maval), Ashutosh Kale (124,624 votes from Kopargaon), and Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde (140,224 votes from Parli).
Shinde won Kopri-Pachpakhadi by a staggering 159,060 votes, while Pratap Sarnaik from his faction secured Ovala-Majiwada by 108,158 votes. Shinde’s cabinet colleague Dada Bhuse also made the list with a margin of 106,606 votes from Malegaon Outer.
The highest number of votes polled in the November 20 assembly polls went to BJP candidate Shankar Jagtap (235,323 votes), followed by BJP’s Mahesh Landge from Bhosari (213,624 votes), and NCP’s Dhananjay Munde from Parli (194,889 votes).
Close battles, narrow margins
In stark contrast to the landslides, the polls also witnessed intense battles with razor-thin margins.
The tightest contest unfolded in Malegaon Central, where AIMIM’s Mufti Mohammad Ismail Abdul Khalique retained his seat by just 162 votes. Khalique secured 109,653 votes, narrowly defeating Indian Secular Assembly candidate Shaikh Aasif Rashid, who polled 109,491 votes.
In Sakoli, Congress leader Nana Patole edged past BJP’s Avinash Brahmankar by only 208 votes, securing 96,795 votes to Brahmankar’s 96,587.
A nail-biting contest played out in Belapur, where BJP’s Manda Mhatre achieved a hat-trick win by mere 377 votes. Mhatre polled 91,852 votes, overtaking Sandeep Naik of NCP (SP), who garnered 91,475 votes. The result was declared only after 28 rounds of counting, reminiscent of their fierce battle in 2014.
Similarly, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Rambhau Gaikwad retained his Malegaon Outer seat with an 841-vote margin, defeating Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Jayashree Shelke. Meanwhile, Congress’s Shirishkumar Naik clinched Navapur by 1,121 votes, fending off independent candidate Sharad Gavit.
