BJP and Shiv Sena trade blame over Maharashtra MLC election results

The ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), secured two of the five Legislative Council seats contested on Thursday, October 29, 2026. The BJP and Shiv Sena each won one seat, while the NCP failed to retain its allotted seat. Opposition parties, including the NCP faction led by Sharad Pawar and the Congress, each captured a seat, reducing the alliance's overall tally.

BJP spokesperson Navnath Ban accused Shiv Sena of undermining the alliance by supporting an independent candidate in the Pune teachers’ constituency at the last minute, saying the move “dealt a blow to the unity of the Mahayuti alliance.” He added that Shiv Sena’s actions in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, where a party member campaigned against the NCP, also affected the outcome. Ban argued that the alliance would have won all five seats “had the Shiv Sena upheld the principles of the Mahayuti alliance by cooperating with the BJP and the Nationalist Congress Party.”

Shiv Sena leader Anand Paranjpe countered that the BJP had failed to coordinate seat distribution from the start. He said, “There was a complete lack of co-ordination on seat distribution since the beginning. In Pune, we had insisted that we should get at least one of the two seats. Both the seats did not have a sitting BJP MLC, and yet they wanted both the seats for themselves.” Paranjpe also suggested that BJP cadres were dissatisfied with NCP candidates in certain constituencies and urged the BJP to introspect on its own coordination failures.

The dispute highlights ongoing tensions within the Mahayuti alliance ahead of future state elections, with both parties emphasizing the need for better cooperation to improve electoral performance.