Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine leading in Maharashtra Assembly Election with 185 seats

1. The Seatshare Story

The NDA won a comfortable victory in Maharashtra, securing a majority and winning 185 seats: 40 more seats than the 145 required to form a government.

NDA won 185 of the total 288 seats - an increase of 95 seats from the 2009 election. UPA came in second: it bagged 83 seats, a fall of 61 from the previous election. In a change from the previous election, Shiv Sena joined the NDA alliance, and Nationalist Congress Party joined the UPA alliance.

2. The Voteshare Story

BJP's voteshare was 27.8%, an increase of 13.8% from the previous election. Shiv Sena had 19.3% voteshare: an increase of 3.1% from the previous election. Congress had 18.0% voteshare: a fall of 3.0% from the previous election. Others had 17.7% voteshare: a fall of 14.7% from the previous election.

3. The Rural-Urban Divide

NDA performed much better in urban areas compard to rural areas. It won 54.4% of the urban vote, compared to 43.8% of the rural vote. This translated to 77 out of 99 urban seats and 108 out of 189 rural seats.

4. The Regional Variation

There was significant regional variation in election results in Maharashtra. The NDA did particularly well in Mumbai and Vidarbha, winning 29/36 and 48/62 of the seats respectively. In comparison, the regions of Marathwada and Western Maharashtra saw a relatively more competitive race. Here, the NDA won 26/46 and 37/70 of the seats respectively. The breakdown of seatshare is shown in the table below.

region	Total Seats	NDA	UPA	Others
Marathwada	46	26	17	3
Mumbai	36	29	5	2
North Maharashtra	35	21	12	2
Thane Konkan	39	24	9	6
Vidarbha	62	48	11	3
Western Maharashtra	70	37	29	4

Additionally, the regional voteshare is shown in the table below.

region	NDA	UPA	Others
Marathwada	44.3	38.5	17.2
Mumbai	58.4	23.0	18.6
North Maharashtra	47.8	39.6	12.6
Thane Konkan	50.8	26.9	22.3
Vidarbha	47.6	31.9	20.5
Western Maharashtra	42.5	42.1	15.4

5. Varying margins of victory

The median margin of victory increased from 9.5% in 2009 to 10.4%, indicating a relatively less competitive election.

BJP had a relatively high median victory margin of 14.2%, and won most of the seats it contested with a comparatively high margin. Shiv Sena, Congress had victory margins of 9.1%, 7.7% respectively. NCP had a relatively low median victory margin of 6.3%, and won most of the seats it contested with a comparatively low margin.