The Maha Vikas Aghadi, a grand alliance of the Congress party, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction), took a severe blow in the recently concluded Maharashtra election.
It has now been reduced to a paltry 46 seats in an Assembly of 288 seats. The rival MahaYuti, an alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) and Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction), secured a mammoth 230 seats.
Here are 8 prominent politicians from the Maha Vikas Aghadi who took a severe drubbing in the election.
Prithviraj Chavan
The former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan, contested from the Karad South Vidhan Sabha constituency on a Congress ticket.
He lost the polls by a margin of 39,355 votes against BJP candidate Atulbaba Suresh Bhosale. Chavan has been a member of the Vidhan Sabha since 2010. He had previously served as a member of the Rajya Sabha.
In May 2020, Prithviraj Chavan courted controversy by suggesting that the Centre seize $1 trillion worth of gold lying with all the religious trusts in the country.
#Stimulus.@PMOindia Govt. must immediately appropriate all the gold lying with all the Religious Trusts in the country, worth at least $1 trillion, according to the #WorldGoldCouncil. The gold can be borrowed through gold bonds at a low interest rate. This is an emergency.PC
— Prithviraj Chavan (@prithvrj) May 13, 2020
Essentially, he had Hindu temples in mind while posting such an outrageous tweet.
Balasaheb Thorat
Balasaheb Thorat is a senior member of the Congress party and the former Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha.
He was defeated by Amol Dhondiba Khatal of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) from the Sangamner constituency by a whopping margin of 10,560 votes.
Interestingly, he had been a member of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha from the same constituency for 39 years.
Dhiraj Deshmukh
Dhiraj Deshmukh is the son of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. He is also the younger brother of actor Ritesh Deshmukh.
He was first elected to the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha from the Latur Rural constituency in 2019.
BJP leader Ramesh Karad defeated Dhiraj Deshmukh in the recently concluded Maharashtra elections by a margin of 6,595 votes.
Manikrao Thakare
The 70-year-old veteran Congress politician was a member of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha between 1985 and 2004.
He also served as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) on two ocassions.
A prominent OBC leader, he was defeated by BJP’s Rathod Dhulichand from the Dhiras constituency with a margin of 28,775 votes in the 2024 elections.
Manikrao Thakare is currently the Congress in-charge for Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
Ruturaj Patil
Ruturaj Patil is the grandson of late Congress leader DY Patil. He has been a member of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha since 2019.
Patil contested from the Kolhapur constituency in the recently held elections but lost to BJP leader Amal Mahadik by 17630 votes.
He is a businessman by occupation.
Yashomati Thakur
The Congress leader lost out to Rajesh Wankhade from the Teosa Vidhan Sabha constituency by a margin of 7,617 votes.
In January 2020, Yashomati Thakur publicly acknowledged that the Maha Vikas Aghadi would fill its pockets within days of forming the government in Maharashtra.
#WATCH Maharashtra Minister Yashomati Thakur in Washim: Our govt was not in power till now. But now I have taken oath as the State Minister. We are yet to fill our pockets. #Maharashtra (04.01.2020) pic.twitter.com/1AHE3LTBe1
— ANI (@ANI) January 6, 2020
A year earlier, she was seen screaming, abusing and threatening a cop at the St George Hospital in Mumbai.
In April 2022, Yashomati Thakur stirred the hornet’s nest by suggesting that Nagaland and West Bengal were not a part of India.
This CONgress minister needs geography lessons, she thinks Nagaland and Bengal are in a different country. She is Yashomati Chandrakant Thakur (Sonawane), Minister Women and Child Development Department, Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/12BU3eqwje
— Vikas Pandey (Sankrityayan) (@MODIfiedVikas) April 12, 2022
She had previously served as the Guardian Minister of the Amaravati district.
Fahad Ahmad
Fahad Ahmad is the husband of failed Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar. He was earlier a member of the Samajwadi party but later defected to the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction).
Despite invoking Islam in his public speeches and meeting extremists like Maulana Sajjad Nomani, Fahad Ahmad took a severe beating in the 2024 Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha election.
He contested from the Anushakti Nagar constituency and lost by a margin of 3378 votes.
Thereafter, Fahad Ahmad and Swara Bhaskar cast aspersions on the integrity of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Yugendra Pawar
Yugendra Pawar is the grandnephew of Sharad Pawar. He contested the 2024 Maharashtra election from the family bastion of Baramati and yet lost by a margin of more than 1 lakh votes.
His opponent in the election was none other than his uncle Ajit Pawar. Yugendra had previously campaigned for Supriya Sule in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
