Mumbai, Nov 23 A funeral parlour atmosphere prevailed in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) camps of Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (SP)-Shiv Sena (UBT)-plus, after the ruling MahaYuti bulldozer rammed it beyond recognition in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the results of which were declared here on Saturday.
Though setting off to an optimistic start, a sombre mood set in around 11 am onwards when the initial trends indicated the possibility of massive reverses for the Opposition that were proved correct within a couple of hours as celebrations erupted by the MahaYuti camps of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party-plus.
The final count showed that many MVA stalwarts were thrown to the pavement by their MahaYuti rivals in different constituencies, though some newcomers or political greenhorns and a few veterans managed to hold on in the saffron cyclone.
From the MVA, the SS (UBT) has emerged as the biggest partner with 20 seats, Congress notching 16 victories and the NCP (SP) with 10 wins.
Among those who made it past the winning lines are: Congress’ Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, ex-Minister Aslam Shaikh, NCP (SP) General Secretary Jitendra Awhad, state President Jayant R. Patil, and their junior colleague Rohit R. R. Patil, 25, became the youngest MLA in the new house, while SS (UBT)’s Aditya Thackeray, his cousin Varun Sardesai, CPI (M)’s Vinod B. Nikole, Samajwadi Party’s Abu Asim Azmi, among others.
The shock losers included state Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan, Congress Legislative Party Leader Vijay Balasaheb Thorat, ex-CM Prithviraj Chavan, NCP (SP)’s Yugendra S. Pawar, and other bigwigs from the three allies.
The results earned flak from the top MVA leaders including Congress’ Ramesh Chennithala, SS (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, NCP (SP)’s Mahesh Tapase and more, with all suspecting some kind of ‘foul play’ in the outcome.
Chennithala said that they are “absolutely surprised”, Thackeray declared, “Its not a wave but a tsunami, yet there was some ‘gadbad’ that needs to be checked” and Awhad pointed out that “many doubts are raised in public minds.”
A visibly irked Raut said that “the results are completely unbelievable” and are going contrary to the “mood of the people which we were well aware of”.
He alleged various factors including huge money power that may have aided the MahaYuti to score a jumbo victory over the favourite MVA, even as Chennithala assured they would study and analyse the complete results that led to the onslaught before chalking out their future strategy.
However, the exuberant MahaYuti allies – Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party - have dismissed outright all the allegations, saying they (Opposition parties) “are playing spoilsport and crying after the crushing defeat at the hands of the ‘Ladki Bahins’, ‘Ladka Bhaus’, ‘Ladka Kisan’ and ‘Ladka Voters’ of Maharashtra”.
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