Mumbai: Leading in eight of 12 Zilla Parishad and 51 of 125 panchayat samiti polls, BJP continues to be the largest party in Maharashtra, showing clearly that the party is not just an urban phenomenon, but also as strong in rural Maharashtra. BJP has made inroads into western Maharashtra in regions like Satara and Solapur, and performed reasonably well in Kolhapur at the cost of weakened NCP and Congress.
However, its alliance partners are not far behind. After the tragic death of former deputy CM Ajit Pawar in a plane crash two weeks ago, his NCP has emerged as the second largest party, and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena is not far behind.
“These results show the rural Maharashtra mindset. First nagar panchayat, now zilla parishad and panchayat samiti—people have given their approval to the Mahayuti government,” said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to the media on Monday.
“Once again the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the state. In 2017, we had 284 seats, now we have 410 seats. I want to thank people. They have shown faith in us and PM Modi. Even in 2014, 2019, 2024, we performed well in the Assembly (polls). In 2014, we were called just an urban and semi-urban party, but that has been debunked and BJP is no.1 in urban, semi-urban and rural (areas),” said Fadnavis.
Speaking to the media, NCP leader and minister Aditi Tatkare said, “(Ajit) Dada should have been there to see this success. Some places where we thought we would win, we didn’t and that was shocking, but win and lose are part and parcel of elections. We have to accept people’s mandate. We will work harder where we lost.”
Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena has also maintained a good strike rate. It maintained its lead in Konkan except Sindhudurg where the BJP emerged as the largest party. However, of the 350 seats it fought, it was leading in over 160 seats until 6 pm Monday.
Speaking to ThePrint, political analyst Abhay Deshpande said, “BJP has grown at the expense of Congress and NCP. Last time NCP had five zilla parishads out of 12, but this time they won only Pune. BJP had four zilla parishads last time, now they are inching towards winning eight, and Shinde’s growth is very good as well, which means his growth in rural Maharashtra is tremendous.”
“As far as BJP is concerned, their imports from other parties seem to have worked. This helped them grow in rural Maharashtra,” Deshpande added.
Another analyst Sanjay Patil told ThePrint that BJP should see its allies’ performance as a warning sign.
“It seems that BJP has been able to win in rural belt, but the numbers of alliance partners are not bad either. And it is a warning bell for the BJP that the alliance partners also have space. So they need to think, especially if they want to go solo in 2029,” Patil said.
“The real fight is between the three ruling parties as we saw in nagar panchayat, corporation, and zilla parishad polls. As far as Thackeray Shiv Sena is concerned, Uddhav Thackeray has never really looked after the rural polls and had left it to local leaders, a contrast to Eknath Shinde. So that way, Sena UBT numbers are not bad,” he added.
Out of 731 zilla parishad wards, BJP was leading at 225 seats, NCP Ajit Pawar at 172, Shiv Sena at 162, Congress at 55, Sena UBT at 46, NCP SP at 21, and others at 23 until 6 pm Monday.
BJP gains at expense of Congress, divided NCP
In 2017, BJP had won four zilla parishads—Latur, Chatrapati Sambhajinagar, Kolhapur, and Sangli—out of 12.
NCP had won Satara, Pune, Solapur, Parbhani and the Dharashiv zilla parishad. But this time, they could gain only in Pune and Kolhapur and put up a decent fight in Raigad.
“People have given their blessings and tribute to Ajit Pawar’s work. He has worked hard for grassroot people and today’s results are testimony to that,” said MP and NCP state president Sunil Tatkare to the media.
This time BJP is leading in Chatrapati Sambhajinagar, Solapur, Satara, Dharashiv, Parbhani and Sindhudurg. Most of their gains came in at the expense of a weakened Congress and divided NCP.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: BJP’s sweep, boost for Shinde, MVA’s fall—what local body polls say about power play in Maharashtra