The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is leading in Maharashtra with victory likely in 41 seats. The Congress-NCP combine is leading in only five seats.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and its NDA ally, Shiv Sena, won 41 seats out of 48 in Maharashtra in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In comparison to 2009, BJP improved its seat tally to 23, a substantial increase from nine seats they had won. Shiv Sena, its NDA ally, had increased its seats to 18. Congress was the biggest loser where the party saw itself being reduced to two seats from 17 in 2009. Soon after winning the centre, BJP and Shiv Sena won the Maharashtra assembly elections in October 2014 and made Devendra Fadnavis its chief minister, the second Maharashtrian Brahmin to reach that post.

Illustration by Rahul Awasthi

With a population of more than 11 crores, Maharashtra is dominated by the Maratha community which accounts for nearly 33% of the state population. In the past few years with rallies and kranti morchas, Maratha voices have grown stronger with demands of a quota. The state has also seen two mega rallies where thousands of farmers protested about farmer suicides, rising farm loans and the deepening agrarian crisis.