MNS, Ambedkar's VBA, Smaller Parties Fail to Make Impact After Mahayuti's Landslide Victory

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Raj Thackeray and Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi failed to make an impact in the state assembly polls as the ruling Mahayuti cruised to a landslide victory.

Parties like the Samajwadi Party and All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen were in a slightly better position.

The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) fielded candidates on 237 and 28 seats, respectively, but failed to make any impact. The BSP in fact fielded the highest number of candidates in the state assembly polls.

While the MNS had fielded 125 candidates, the VBA had 200 candidates in the fray. Both parties failed to open an account in the state assembly polls.

Incidentally, on the eve of counting of votes, Ambedkar had claimed his party would get a sizable number of seats and would get to choose which side can form the government.

The bad news for the MNS was compounded with Amit Thackeray, son of the party chief, trailing at third place in Mahim seat in Mumbai.

The Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Paksha, which fielded 19 candidates, also failed to make any impact. It is known to have influence among farmers, especially in western Maharashtra. The Bachchu Kadu-led Prahar Janshakti Party fielded 38 too but failed to win any seat.

The Samajwadi Party, Jan Surajya Shakti won two seats each. The CPM, the AIMIM, Rashtriya Yuva Swabhiman Party, Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, Peasants and Workers Party and Rajashri Shahu Vikas Aghadi won one seat each.

A total of 158 parties contested the November 20 assembly polls.

The main fight was between the Mahayuti comprising BJP, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP, and the Maha Vikas Aghadi consisting of the Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT).

With PTI Inputs