As the curtains come down on the high-stake Maharashtra Assembly elections in the country, let's look at the strike rate of each party from both the winner Mahayuti and opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and who scored the best.
The Mahayuti alliance retained power winning 234 out of 288 seats while the MVA got 49 and others 4.
From the winning coalition, the highest strike rate is for the BJP, which won 132 out of 149 seats it contested. The strike rate of BJP is 88.59 per cent.
After BJP, it is Mahayuti partner Shiv Sena (Shinde favour) which has a strike rate of 70.37 per cent. The faction won 57 out of 87 seats. The third-best strike rate is for the NCP (Ajit Pawar) which won 41 out of 59 seats and a strike rate of 69.49 per cent.
From the MVA, which registered a shocking defeat, the best strike rate is for Congress, with 16 wins out of 101 seats. The strike rate is 15.84 per cent. Shiv Sena (UBT)'s dismal performance only earned it 20 seats out of the 95 it contested and a strike rate of 21.05 per cent.
The worst strike rate is for the NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction which won just 10 out of 86 seats. Its strike rate is a mere 11.62 per cent.
BJP's stunning performance
The saffron party had a stunning performance this year by winning 45% of the total seats in the Assembly, earning the honour of the largest for any political party in Maharashtra since 1990 when the Congress won 141 seats or a 49% seat share.
But, the BJP deserves more credit since the wins happened even when the party decided to contest in a lesser number of seats. The BJP had contested 260 seats in 2014 and won 122 seats, its best tally in the state before 2024.
In 2019, it won just 105 seats while contesting 164 seats. That year it partnered with the united Shiv Sena. In 2024, the BJP had to concede more seats to allies because it also needed to accommodate the NCP led by Ajit Pawar.
For NCP (Sharad Pawar), which got the lowest strike rate this time, the elections proved a dud considering that it won 8 out of 10 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, a strike rate of 80 per cent.