Maharashtra Election Results 2024: A day after suffering massive loss in Maharashtra assembly election, the Congress party announced it would conduct a collective introspection with its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners to introspect the reasons behind its “shocking” defeat.
The BJP-led Mahayuti coalition clinched 230 of the 288 assembly seats, while the Congress-led MVA managed just 49 seats.
AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal described the results as “shocking” and “unbelievable,” admitting that the outcome had left the party and its allies puzzled. “We don’t understand what happened. It was not just the debacle of the Congress party but that of the entire Maha Vikas Aghadi. Let us first get a clear picture of what has happened,” he told a TV channel.
Venugopal said the party was surprised by the outcome of the election process, following similar setbacks in Haryana and Maharashtra. However, when asked about the possibility of sabotage in the election results, he refrained from making such allegations, instead focusing on the collective failure of the MVA.
“We suffered huge setbacks in the strongholds of Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray and that of the Congress. It is the failure of not just the Congress party but that of the entire alliance,” he added, mentioning that the MVA would introspect to determine the reasons for the defeat.
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The Election Commission declared that the BJP had won 132 seats, with its ally Shiv Sena securing 57, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 41 seats. In contrast, the MVA saw the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) win just 10 seats, Congress 16, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) 20 seats.
Meanwhile, Venugopal also addressed Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s decisive victory in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, where she secured a margin of over four lakh votes—surpassing her brother Rahul Gandhi’s victory margin in the 2024 general elections. Venugopal attributed the win to the combined efforts of the entire party.
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“The party expected this huge majority in Wayanad,” he said. “We were sure that the low poll percentage would not impact Priyanka’s majority” He also emphasised that Priyanka would continue her interventions in northern India while serving as the MP for Wayanad.
Dismissing the claims from opposition parties suggesting that Priyanka would not frequently visit her constituency, Venugopal said that she would prove her commitment through action.