How Maharashtra has voted in Lok Sabha Elections after 1990

Updated Feb 15, 2019 | 11:01 IST | Times Now Digital

Maharashtra is the 3rd largest state by area and second highest in the number of seats in Lok Sabha. The state's politics invariably revolved around Sharad Pawar and late Bal Thackeray in the last 3 decades.

Uddhav Thackeray Devendra Fadnavis
A file picture of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.  |  Photo Credit: PTI

New Delhi: Politics in Maharashtra, the third largest state by area and second highest in the number of seats in Lok Sabha has invariably revolved around Sharad Pawar and late Bal Thackeray in the last three decades - they being two of the tallest leaders of Maharashtra politics. The 48 seats in Maharashtra have always been a major competition between the financial capital Mumbai, orange city Nagpur and the Queen of Deccan, Pune - being the major cities of Maharashtra. Let's see how Maharashtra has voted in Lok Sabha from 1990 to 2014: 

Year of election 1991

The three major parties in Maharashtra in the 90s were Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena (Sena). INC emerged as the party with the highest number of seat, i.e 38 and also with the highest number of vote share i.e. 48.4%, BJP got the second position in Maharashtra with 5 seats and 20.2% votes. Sena got 4 seats and 9.4% vote share. Shiv Sena has been in coalition with the BJP for Lok Sabha as well as Maharashtra Assembly since 1989. CPM got 1 seat and 1.3% vote share.

Year of election 1996 

BJP gained the highest seats i.e. 18, and 21.8% of votes. INC got 15 seats, just three seats less than BJP. But their vote share was 34.8%. Sena also got 15 seats with 16.8% of votes percentage.

Year of election 1998

In 1998, INC got the highest seats and votes percentage i.e. 33 and 43.6% respectively. Sena got the second highest position with 6 seats and 19.7% votes. BJP and Republican Party of India (RPI) both got 4 seats with 22.5% and 4.1% vote share. Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWPI) got 1 seat and 0.9% vote share only.

Year of election 1999

After splitting from the INC, Sharad Pawar formed his own party Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999 and contested for the Lok Sabha Elections. This time Sena got the highest seats – 15, and their vote’s share was 16.9%. BJP got second highest seats i.e. 13 and 21.2% vote share. INC got 10 seats and 29.7% votes in their tally. NCP got only 6 seats but 21.6% of the votes. Others got 3 seats and 7.3% of votes. Independence (IND) got 1 seat and 3.3% of votes.

Year of election 2004

INC and BJP both got the same number of seats, i.e. 13 but INC stayed ahead in the number of vote percentage that was 23.8% and 22.6% for BJP. Sena got 12 seats and 20.1% votes. Sharad Pawar’s NCP got 9 seats and 18.3% of the votes. Republican Party of India (Athawale) (RPI(A)) got one seat and their vote percentage was also 1%.

Year of election 2009

INC got the highest number of seats – 17, and 19.6% of vote share. Sena got the second position with 11 seats and 17% votes. BJP got 9 seats and 18.2% votes, which was actually higher than Sena. NCP alone got 8 seat and 19.3% votes share, which was almost equivalent to the Congress. Raju Shetty's Swabhimani Paksha (SWP) party, IND and others managed to get 1 seat each and 1.3, 8.1, 16.5% votes respectively.

Year of election 2014

BJP flourished with 23 seats, which was a great change from 9 seats they got in 2009, it got 27.6% votes. Sena got 18 seats and 20.8% votes. NCP and INC were crushed, as they could only get 4 and 2 seats respectively with a voting percentage of 16.1% for NCP and 18.3% for INC. SWP again ended up with a single seat and 2.3% vote share.

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