While it is expected that BJP- Shiv Sena 's Mahayuti may soon announce the name of their leader who would become the new CM of Maharashtra, almost a week after the results, political pundits are digging the election data to find out how the performance of MNS affected the total outcome.

This time Raj Thackeray led MNS failed to win any seat in the assembly. Thackeray's son Amit contested from Mahim but came third. From here, Shiv Sena ( UBT) candidate Mahesh Baliram Sawant won the seat and secured 50213 votes. Amit 's vote percentage was 24.56 %.

Infact MNS which was formed by Raj after family feud with Uddhav, gave its worst performance in these elections as it failed to win even one seat this time.

In its first election 13 seats in 2009 elections. In 2014, MNS could win only 1 seat and its vote share dropped to 3.2 %. Again in 2019, the dismal performance continued and the party again managed to win just 1 seat but the vote percentage dropped to 2.3 %.

This time the party failed to register even a single win. But the data suggests that while MNS could not win any seat for itself, but it has inadvertently helped cousin Uddhav's Sena to win some seats in a tightly fought contest.

3 examples to show how MNS became a vote cutter?

Worli seat

Take for example Worli seat from where Uddhav's son Aditya was locked in a tough fight with Shiv Sena ( Shinde) candidate Milind Deora. Aditya won this seat and got 63324 votes. Milind Deora earned 54523 votes and MNS candidate Sandeep Sudhakar Deshpande got 19367 votes. So if Deshpande had not been in the fray, MNS which was fighting the election against MVA could have transferred its votes . In this case, outcome would have been totally different had MNS' votes 19367 had gone to Mahayuti candidate Milind.

Versova

Let's examine the case of Versova to test our theory. Here, Shiv Sena UBT candidate Haroon Khan won the seat and got 65396 votes. BJP's Bharati Lavekar who secured 63796 votes lost the elections with the margin of merely 1600 votes. Her destiny could have changed if MNS candidate was not in the fray. Sandesh Desai of MNS was able to get 5037 votes.

Vikhroli

Still dont believe ? Let's analyze the result of Vikhroli seat. Here also, Shiv Sena UBT won the seat as MNS was in the fray. Sunil Rajaram Raut of Shiv Sena UBT got 66093 votes and defeated nearest rival Suvarna Shadev Karanje of Shiv Sena ( Shinde) who got 50567 votes. MNS candidate Vishwajeet Dholam got 16813 votes while the winning margin was 15,526 votes. Had MNS candidate ot been in the contest, the voters who voted against MVA would have given the vote to Shinde Shiv Sena.

Bottom Line

These three examples may not give a complete picture but are a strong reflection that on many seats in Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai, the MNS candidates who had come on third place made way for Uddhav Thackeray's candidates to the assembly. So while many may reject MNS as a spent force or that it has lost its charm among Marathi voters, it signals that while MNS may not have the strength to win the elections, it surely has the capacity to divide anti Uddhav votes.

The party had not contested the Lok Sabha elections and has extended support to NDA. But in the assembly elections it fielded 125 candidates but none of them able to win any single seat.

So the party must question itself whether should the party align itself fully with Mahayuti so that it can strengthen the alliance & show its strength in the BMC elections whenever they are held next.

Also, is there any possibility of reproachment between MNS & Shiv Sena UBT after the debale experienced by both the parties ? After both the parties are branches of the same political tree Balasaheb Thackeray.