Did Turncoats really hurt BJP in Maharashtra ?

Before the Maharashtra election, several leaders had joined the BJP. A common theory is floating that these turncoats lost in a big way bringing the BJP tally down. This is mostly BJP supporters projecting own views on the results. However, BJP did turncoats really hurt BJP in Maharashtra.

Let us analyze how the turncoats fared for BJP in Maharashtra Election.

Assembly
Seat 		Lok Sabha Name 2014
Margin 		2019
Margin
Shirpur Nandurbar Kashiram Pawara 25000
votes 		49000
votes
Kankavali Ratnagiri Sindhudurg Nitesh Rana 26000
votes 		28000
votes
Satara Satara Shivendraraje
Bhosle 		48000
votes 		43000
votes
Wadala Mumbai (SC) Kalidas
Kolambkar 		800
votes 		31000
votes
Osmanabad Osmanabad Rana
Jagjitsinha 		11000
votes 		13000
votes
Colaba Mumbai South Rahul
Narwekar 		24000
votes 		16000
votes
Airoli Thane Ganesh Naik 9000
votes 		78000
votes
Shirdi Shirdi Radhakrisha
Vikhe Patil 		75000
votes 		87000
votes
Man Madha Jayakumar
Gore 		23000
votes 		3000
votes
Kaij Beed Namita
Mundada 		  33000
votes
Kalyan
East 		Thane Ganpat
Gaikwad 		700
votes 		12000
votes
Guhagarh Raigad Bhaskar
Jadav 		33000
votes 		26000
votes

It must be noted that out of 18 imported candidates by BJP, 12 won. The turncoats who lost on BJP ticket are:

* Akole (Shirdi): Vaibhav Pichad * Indapur (Baramati): Harshvardhan Patil * Gondia (Bhandara Gondia): Gopaldas Agarwal * Bhokar (Nanded): Bapusaheb Gorthekar * Wai (Satara): Madan Bhosale * Nawapur (Nandurbar): Bharat Gavit 

Outcome

The ‘incoming’ candidates losing has caught on mainly due to the loss of the Satara Lok Sabha, where Udayanraje could not hold on to this seat which he had earlier won as a NCP candidate. Added to it, the loss of Alpesh Thakore, former Congress leader also created a belief in the minds of BJP supporters that the turncoats did damage BJP in Maharashtra. However, if data is analysed the turncoats have more or less benefited after joining BJP.

By Aashish Chandorkar

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