Task cut out: Building on gains, fighting for turf

Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, Mahayuti pepped up before Assembly elections

- ADITI PHADNIS

The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Congress-Shiv Sena (Uddhav)-Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) combine, made huge gains in Maharashtra, especially in the Vidarbha and Western Maharashtra regions.

The crowning glory has been the Baramati seat, won by former chief minister Sharad Pawar's daughter, Supriya, amid a challenge posed by her cousin Ajit Pawar, whose wife contested the election. Baramati saw the lowest turnout of all the seats in Maharashtra.

Earlier this month, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had said the alliance would win 46 of the 48 seats in the state. Other MVA leaders were more cautious, giving between 36 and 38 to the alliance. The final tally could place the two rival alliances - the other one called the Mahayuti and comprising the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the breakaway faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) -neck and neck. That is a little less than what the alliance expected but nevertheless a big improvement after the setbacks the MVA received by way of defections and splits.