Maharashtra results settle the debate over who is the real Shiv Sena and NCP

Between June 2022 and July 2023, Maharashtra’s two major regional parties – the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party – broke up, with the rebel factions joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Lok Sabha results appear to show that public sentiment has sided with the parent parties at the receiving end of the split – Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party. Both of them were part of a government with the Congress that was dislodged in 2022 following the rebellion.

Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party has won eight seats. By contrast, the faction led by his nephew Ajit Pawar has won one.

Similarly, Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena has won nine seats, two more than the tally of the Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Of the 13 seats where both factions of Shiv Sena were in direct contest, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena won seven seats, and Uddhav Thackeray’s party six seats. In one of those seats, Mumbai Northwest, Shinde’s Sena managed a narrow win by 48 votes.

In the two seats where both the factions of Nationalist Congress Party’ contested against each other, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party made a clean sweep, trouncing...

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