Maharashtra polls: 60 swing seats that saw close fights hold the key

PUNE: This election could be unique for slim victory margins given the many close and multi-cornered contests this time.

Data from last three assembly elections indicate 103 swing seats where winning margins are between 11 and 10,000. In the last three assembly polls, the winning margin in 60 seats was between 11 and 6,000. In at least 43, the margin was between 6,000 and 10,000.The number of such seats is set to multiply in this time's multi-corned fight. Poll pundits expect thinnest winning margins in 25 years. Victory margins first dipped significantly in 1999, when Sharad Pawar defected from Congress to form Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In the three-cornered fight be tween Congress, NCP and the BJP-Sena that followed, 87 candidates won with less than 6,000-vote margins.

This time, parties have given special treatment to their thinly-won or lost 103 seats. "For Lok Sabha polls, BJP picked 115 LS segments across the nation where winning margins were slim. RSS ensured each voter was contacted. The strategy worked. We did the same here in Maharashtra. Party chief Amit Shah personally monitored this plan," said a BJP official.Congress and NCP banked on their grassroot-networks. NCP's leaders in Satara, for instance, met every voter in Patan where their candidate Vikramsingh Patankar had won by 580 votes in 2009.

"In close fights, voting takes some unfortunate turns. Caste and religion become major factors. Candidates then focus on these issues for votes," said NCP Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan. Political scientist Ashok Chousalkar said this poll was unique as for the first time, every party was contesting on its own.