Politics of Maharashtra

After India's independence, most of Maharashtra's political history was dominated by the Indian National Congress party. Maharashtra became a bastion of the Congress party producing stalwarts such as Yashwantrao Chavan, Vasantdada Patil, Shankarrao Chavan, Vasantrao Naik and Sharad Pawar. The party enjoyed near unchallenged dominance of the political landscape until 1995 when the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured an overwhelming majority in the state to form a coalition. After a split in the Congress party, former chief minister Sharad Pawar formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), but formed a coalition with the Congress to keep out the BJP-SS combine. Prithviraj Chavan of Congress party is the current Chief Minister of Maharashtra.