New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as the largest dynastic party in Maharashtra after the assembly elections with as many as 16 MLAs from political families entering the assembly.
In fact, in percentage terms, BJP has emerged as the party with best success rate of dynasts in both Maharashtra and Haryana elections.
Seventeen of the 29 dynasts BJP fielded across the two states have managed to score a home run for the party. Of these, 16 wins came in Maharashtra, where 27 political heirs contested elections on the BJP ticket, and one in Haryana out of two.
That’s a success rate of 58.62 per cent for BJP’s dynasts, just below the overall average of 59 for such candidates fielded by all parties.
While the Congress, which fielded more dynasts across the two states, has a higher number of winning candidates at 21 — 14 in Maharashtra out of 20 candidates and 7 in Haryana out of 16 — it’s just slightly lower than the BJP in percentage terms at 58.33.
Its ally, Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, fielded 15 such candidates, including his the party chief’s nephews Rohit and Ajit — all in Maharashtra. Of these, 10 won the elections giving the party the highest success rate of 66.7 per cent.
The success of BJP’s dynasts comes amid constant criticism of the opposition by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the same charge.
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Dynasts in Maharashtra and Haryana
In the assembly elections held Monday, a total of 91 candidates belonging to political families contested. Of these, 54 have managed to secure a win for the parties — a strike rate of 59.3 per cent.
Of the 22 dynasts who contested from Haryana, 12 have won. In Maharashtra, 42 have won out of 69.
From the sons and daughter-in-law of the three Lals of Haryana that shaped the politics of the state for decades to the Thackerays of Maharashtra, the poll battlefield tested the dynasts in two states Thursday.
Shiv Sena had 13 such candidates in the fray, with five winners, out of the 124 seats it contested in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.
The dynasts represented the BJP in nearly 16 per cent (27) of the 164 seats it contested along with its smaller allies in Maharashtra. While the party was earlier supposed to field 28 such dynasts, state BJP leader Ganesh Naik contested instead of his son Sandeep, bringing the tally down to 27.
In Haryana’s 90-member assembly, however, BJP fielded only two such candidates — Aditya Chautala, a part of the Devi Lal clan, secured a victory, but former Union minister Birender Singh’s wife Prem Lata lost.
Congress fielded the most number of dynasts in Haryana. Its seven winners include party stalwarts such Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kiran Chaudhry. In Maharashtra, however, it had more success for these candidates.
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