The 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election was held on 21 October 2019 to elect all 288 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. After a 61.4% turnout in the election, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena (SHS) won a majority. Following differences over the government formation, the alliance was dissolved, precipitating a political crisis.

Since a council of ministers had not been formed after no party could manage to form the government, President's rule was imposed in the state. On 23 November 2019, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister. However, both resigned on 26 November 2019 before the floor test and on 28 November 2019, Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress formed the government under a new alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), with Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister.

On 29 June 2022, Uddhav Thackeray resigned as Chief Minister after a faction of MLAs led by Eknath Shinde split from Shiv Sena and allied with the BJP. Subsequently, Eknath Shinde was sworn in as Chief Minister and Devendra Fadnavis as the deputy Chief minister.

Background The results were out on 21 October 2019 with the Sena-BJP Alliance getting majority, enough to form the government. However, Shiv Sena and BJP had a falling out over the position of Chief Minister, leading Shiv Sena to form an alliance with the opposition, ending their alliance. The new alliance, named Maha Vikas Aghadi, consisted of Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP forming the Government.

Election schedule

The Election Commission announced the election dates for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

Poll Event Schedule Notification date 27 September 2019 Last date for filing out nominations 4 October 2019 Scrutiny of nominations 5 October 2019 Last date for withdrawal of Candidature 7 October 2019 Date of Poll 21 October 2019 Counting of Votes 24 October 2019

Political parties and campaign National Democratic Alliance Pre-election alliance of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was formed between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena (SHS). Later, however, SHS left NDA and formed Three-Party Alliance Government Maha Vikas Aghadi seeing inability to share power with each other.

United Progressive Alliance Pre-election alliance of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was formed with Indian National Congress (INC) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). INC filled nominations on 145 seats and NCP on 123. Other parties that supported the UPA alliance were Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Saghtana (4 seats), the Peasants and Workers Party (6 seats), Samajwadi Party (3 seats), Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (3 seats) and Ravi Rana-led Swabhiman Sanghatana (1 seat). The opposition finalised common nominee of 2 seats of Mankhatao and Kothrud constituency. Peoples Republican Party (3 seats) and Bahujan Republican Socialist Party (2 seats) will be fielding their candidates on the symbols of INC and NCP. The Samajwadi Party later rescinded its support for the alliance, to contest for 7 seats separately instead. Shiv Sena later joined UPA after leaving NDA.

Others Various prominent parties in the Maharashtra's political scenario did not join hands with either of the two alliances. This includes Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi that will be contesting all 288 seats. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen will be contesting from 44 seats, mostly from Muslim predominant constituencies. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena will be contesting from 103 seats.

A total of 5543 nominations were received by Election Commission throughout the state of which about 3239 candidatures were left after others were rejected or had their nominations withdrawn. The Chiplun constituency ha the least candidates (3 candidates), whereas Nanded South constituency had the maximum candidates (38 candidates). Coalition Parties Number of candidates NDA (288)Bharatiya Janata Party152Shiv Sena124 NDA Others12 UPA(288)Indian National Congress 125Nationalist Congress Party 125UPA Others 38 Other 2663Total3239

Maha Yuti Campaign On 30 September 2019, The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena announced that they have finalised their Seat sharing agreements with each other and agreed to fight under the banner of Maha Yuti Alliance. Few days before, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had visited Matoshree (Uddhav Thackeray's Home) and met Uddhav Thackeray for the same.

The parties however were clashing on the subject of 50-50 CM sharing formula.

The campaign was led by Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and then Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray

Shiv Sena

Jan- Aashirwad Yatra In order to expand the party's image and to improve its vote share within the state as well as in the Alliance, the Shiv Sena started Jan Aashirwad Yatra headed by party's youth icon and Yuva Sena Chief Aaditya Thackeray. Under this, Aditya Thackeray with his party cadres travelled city-to-city, village-to-village convincing people to vote in favour of his party and the Alliance.

Aditya Samwad On par with the Jan Aashirwad Yatra, Aaditya Thackeray interacted with youth community across the state under the Aditya Samwad, there he addressed questions related common problems faced by today's generation and provided solutions for them. Aditya Samwad was promoted and supported by Indian Political Strategist Prashant Kishor and his company I-PAC.

Bharatiya Janata Party

Maha-Janadesh Yatra The BJP launched the Maha-Janadesh Yatra headed by then incumbent CM and BJP Leader Devendra Fadnavis, State President Chandrakant Patil and Union Minister Rajnath Singh. Under the Yatra, the BJP hoped to approach more constituencies and voters.

Maha Aaghadi Campaign On 16 September 2019, the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party sealed their deal for seat sharing arrangements for the elections, both the parties contested on 125 Seats and kept 38 seats for Independents/Smaller Parties, This comes after the INC-NCP lost many heavyweight leaders joining BJP-Sena.

Both the parties were unclear about the CM Candidate from the Alliance.

Nationalist Congress Party

Shiv Swarajya Yatra The NCP flagged off the Shiv Swarajya Yatra from Shivneri, headed by Chief Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar and State President Jayant Patil, the Party hoped that it would reach maximum people that would help them to raise strong Anti-Incumbency. The campaign by the Nationalist Congress Party was seen as a try-hard campaign against the mighty Sena-BJP Alliance, which proved correct making the BJP-Sena losing vast constituencies against the Congress-NCP.

The NCP also managed to revive the itself by successfully gaining their stronghold Western Maharashtra back from the Sena-BJP Alliance, the lone-NCP was seen as the main and unexpected competitor against the Sena-BJP. The Sena-BJP though managed to win majority for the second term, but lost core-ministers and constituencies to the NCP.

Indian National Congress

Pol Khol Yatra The INC flagged off the Pol Khol Yatra headed by senior state party leaders like Ashok Chavan, State President Balasaheb Thorat and Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath. The Pol Khol Yatra was intended to expose the ruling Maha Yuti Government's failures and claims. The Yatra did little to help the party in securing fate in Maharashtra.

Surveys and polls Subsequent to the election, pre-polling and exit polling in all cases but one (India Today-Axis exit poll), was seen to have significantly over-estimated the vote share and seat projections to the ruling right-wing NDA coalition.

Vote share Publishing Date Polling Agency NDA UPA Others 26 September 2019ABP News – C Voter46% 30% 24%18 October 2019IANS – C Voter47.3%19.5%67.3%

Seat projections Poll type Publishing Date Polling Agency Majority NDA UPA Others Opinion polls 26 September 2019 Patriotic Voter 193-1996728 26 September 2019ABP News – C Voter205552827 September 2019NewsX – Pollstrat210492917 October 2019Republic Media – Jan Ki Baat 225-232 48-52 8-1118 October 2019ABP News – C Voter19486818 October 2019IANS – C Voter182-20672-98 Exit pollsIndia Today – Axis166-194 72-90 22-34 Patriotic Voter 175 84 35News18 – IPSOS243414Republic Media – Jan Ki Baat216-230 52-59 8-12ABP News – C Voter2046915NewsX – Pollstrat188-20074-896-10Times Now2304810 ------------ ACTUAL RESULTS------------ 1619829

Region-wise breakup of candidates RegionTotal seats Bharatiya Janata Party Shiv Sena Nationalist Congress Party Indian National CongressCandidatesCandidatesCandidatesCandidates Western Maharashtra 70 39 31 41 29 Vidarbha 62 50 12 15 47 Marathwada 46 26 20 23 23 Thane+Konkan 39 13 26 17 22 Mumbai 36 17 19 6 30 North Maharashtra 35 20 15 20 15 Total 288 164 124 125 125

Results Party-wise results 1619829NDAUPAOthers

Parties and Coalitions Popular voteSeats Vote % ± Contested Won %±Bharatiya Janata Party1,41,99,37525.752.2016410536.4617Shiv Sena90,49,78916.413.041265619.447Nationalist Congress Party92,16,91916.710.621215418.7513Indian National Congress87,52,19915.872.171474415.282Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi3,68,7350.670.053131.04 All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen7,37,8881.340.414420.69Samajwadi Party1,23,2670.220.05720.691Prahar Janshakti Party2,65,3200.480.482620.69Communist Party of India (Marxist)2,04,9330.370.02810.35Maharashtra Navnirman Sena12,42,1352.250.9010110.35Peasants and Workers Party of India5,32,3660.970.042410.352Swabhimani Paksha2,21,6370.400.26510.351Jan Surajya Shakti1,96,2840.360.07410.351Krantikari Shetkari Party1,16,9430.210.21110.35Rashtriya Samaj Paksha81,1690.150.34610.35Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi25,23,5834.584.5823600.0Independents54,77,6539.935.221400134.516None of the above7,42,1351.350.43 Total 5,51,50,470 100.00 288 100.00 ±0Valid votes5,51,50,47099.91Invalid votes48,7380.09Votes cast / turnout5,51,99,20861.44Abstentions 3,46,39,05938.56Registered voters 8,98,38,267 +Bharatiya Janata PartyShiv SenaNationalist Congress PartyIndian National CongressNational Democratic AllianceUnited Progressive Alliance Devendra FadnavisUddhav ThackerayAjit PawarAshok Chavan25.75%16.41%16.71%15.87%105(25.75%)56(16.41%)54(16.71%)44(15.87%) 17 07 13 02

Alliance fight results Win\2nd BJP SS Others 1st/2nd/-INC18/5317/159/244/71/10NCP25/3022/177/054/47/24Others12/2212/243/31st/2nd/-105/55/456/51/17 18/53 indicate INC won with BJP as 2nd in 18 seats, and BJP won over INC as runner-up in 53 seats.

Region-wise break up RegionTotal seatsOthers Bharatiya Janata Party Shiv Sena Nationalist Congress Party Indian National CongressSeats WonSeats WonSeats WonSeats Won Western Maharashtra 70 20 4 5 8 27 8 12 2 6 Vidarbha 62 29 15 4 6 5 15 5 8 Marathwada 46 16 1 12 1 8 8 1 2 Thane+Konkan 39 11 1 15 1 5 3 2 1 8 Mumbai 36 16 1 14 1 1 2 3 1 North Maharashtra 35 13 1 6 1 7 2 5 2 4 Total 288 105 17 56 7 54 13 44 2 29

Votes polled by winning candidates RegionBharatiya Janata PartyShiv SenaNationalist Congress PartyIndian National CongressVotes polledVotes polledVotes polledVotes polled Western Maharashtra26.8% 8.00%5.56%12.04%39.5% 7.6%20% 9.40% Vidarbha48.1% 24.4%7.4% 0.30%9.3% 7.2%22.6% 7.70% Marathwada40.5% 0.60%18.2% 2.20%18.8% 7.1%18.1% 2.50% Thane+Konkan32.1% 4.70%32.9% 0.40%13.7% 6 %2.6% 0.31% Mumbai48.1% 3.20%37.7% 4.10%2.5% 2.5%8.9% 2.90% North Maharashtra37.6% 5.10%16.11% 3.49%20.8% 7.2%15.6% 3.50% Total38.87% 6.1%19.65% 2.15%17.43% 4.26%15% 1.68%

Seat Metrics AlliancePartySeats BeforeRetainedGainedLostSeats WonNDABJP12282 23 40105Shiv Sena6336 20 2756UPANCP4122 32 1954INC4221 23 2144

City-wise results