The Maharashtra Assembly elections 2024 witnessed some of the tightest contests, with several candidates clinching victory by wafer-thin margins. In a surprising twist, a few races were decided by just a handful of votes.
Among the most closely contested seats was Malegaon Central in Nashik district, where All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate Mufti Mohammad Ismail Abdul Khalique won by a mere 162 votes. His victory over Asif Shaikh Rasheed of the Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra shocked many, as the margin was incredibly slim for such a high-stakes contest.
Another close race unfolded in Sakoli, Bhandara district, where state Congress president Nana Patole emerged victorious by just 208 votes margin. He defeated BJP’s Avinash Brahmankar in what became one of the tightest battles of the election, with every vote counting toward his success.
The grandnephew of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, who was seen as a key factor in the senior Pawar-led faction’s success in the Lok Sabha elections, struggled to retain his Karjat-Jamkhed seat. He ultimately defeated BJP’s Ram Shankar Shinde by a margin of 1,243 votes.
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In Navi Mumbai’s Belapur, BJP’s Manda Mhatre clinched her seat by only 377 votes, while in Buldhana, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Gaikwad won by a narrow margin of 841 votes. These victories, though small, were crucial for their respective parties in securing seats in an election with an overwhelming margin of victory for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance.
Other tight contests included NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil, who won Ambegaon by 1,523 votes, and Shiv Sena’s Tanaji Sawant, who secured his seat in Paranda by 1,509 votes. In the Aurangabad East seat, BJP’s Atul Save won with a margin of 2,161 votes.
The results of the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, announced on November 23, saw a massive landslide victory for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance. The alliance, consisting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), won over 220 seats in the 288-member assembly, securing a commanding majority.
On the other hand, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, made up of Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (Sharad Pawar), was left with just 49 seats, suffering a major defeat.