While the MVA could manage to get only 50 plus seats out of the 288 state assembly seats, her own party, which it was widely believed would spring a surprise as it did during the Lok Sabha elections, fell far shortt of the mark. The MVA was banking heavily on NCP (SP), a party which had otherwise delivered a sterling performance during the Lok Sabha elections.

Sule said that while she accepted the verdict, the MVA constituents will have to sit back and analyse what went wrong and why it failed to put up a fight. ”We will have an analysis as to what went wrong between the Lok Sabha elections and the assembly elections. In the Lok Sabha elections, we won 31 seats despite the all-out effort by the BJP-Mahayuti to defeat us. And therefore we need to introspect and analyse the reason as to how the momentum slipped out of our hands,” she said.

Sule said that at this point she wouldn’t like to put the blame on the Ladkhi Bahin Yojana, which the Mahayuti leaders said proved to be game changer, or the distribution of money to purchase votes by the ruling parties. ”They did affect the voting pattern, but I wouldn’t like to hold them fully responsible for our defeat. As I said, this needs a thorough analysis to pinpoint the exact reason as to when we failed,” she said.

Sule also did not seem to agree with other Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders about the EVM tampering or sudden five to six per cent increase in voting compared to the Lok Sabha elections. ”I will not comment about it now… The results have just come in… We will have to go through them and find out the reasons,” she said.

Asked whether the bickering among MVA constituents over seat-sharing and chief ministerial post sent out a wrong signal among voters, Sule said, “I don’t think this must have affected our performance… But it needs to be looked into.”

On whether the MVA will remain intact, Sule said, “Why not ? Such things happen during elections. One has to get up and get cracking for the sake of the people of Maharashtra… MVA will remain firm and united. We will regroup, reunite and continue to serve the people of Maharashtra… So what… are we out of power? We shall continue to be in the hearts of the people of Maharashtra and we will always remain at their beck and call..”

As for Yugendra Pawar’s defeat from the Baramati seat, Sule said he might have been defeated, but the opponent’s lead has come down drastically, suggesting that it was a moral victory for her nephew. “Last time, Ajit Pawar had won by more than 1.50 lakh votes. And now, I think the margin of victory has reduced drastically. The final result is yet to come though,” she said.

Yugendra was contesting his first election while Ajit Pawar was contesting his eighth election. Ajit Pawar has never lost the election from Baramati, be it assembly or Lok Sabha election.