'VBA cost Congress-NCP 23 seats in Maharashtra polls'

A senior NCP leader on Friday claimed the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi divided opposition votes in several seats resulting in victory to the BJP and the Shiv Sena.

In a tweet, Mumbra-Kalwa MLA Jitendra Awhad said, "Congress and NCP lost 12 and 11 seats because of VBA candidates ate our share of votes. The MIM candidates in Nagpur Central and Nanded north helped the BJP and Shiv Sena candidates to sail through a tough contest."

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The VBA played a "crucial role" in helping BJP win some seats, which otherwise would have been in the Congress- NCP kitty, he said.

Poll data shows the VBA candidate from Ballarpur Assembly segment in Chandrapur district secured 39,958 votes, as against the Congress candidate's 52,762 votes, which allowed senior BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar to win by getting 86,002 votes.

In Shivajinagar Assembly segment in Pune, the VBA candidate got 10,442 votes, which allowed the BJP to win with a margin of around 5,000 votes.

However, there are also some seats where the VBA and the MIM ended up second.