State / UT
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is the Marathi-speaking state formed on 1 May 1960 when the Bombay Reorganisation Act split bilingual Bombay State into Maharashtra and Gujarat. It is India's largest state economy and its second-most populous, with 112.37 million people at the 2011 Census, 48 Lok Sabha seats and a projected 2025-26 GSDP of Rs 49.39 lakh crore. It is one of only six states with a bicameral legislature — a 288-seat Vidhan Sabha and a 78-seat Vidhan Parishad — and it keeps two capitals, Mumbai and Nagpur, with the winter session held in Nagpur. Its distinctive constitutional feature is Article 371(2), which allows the President to charge the Governor with a special responsibility for separate development boards for Vidarbha, Marathwada and the rest of Maharashtra, and for equitable allocation of development funds between them.
Updated
- Capital
- Mumbai (Nagpur is the winter capital)
- Formed
- 1 May 1960, under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960
- Legislature
- Bicameral — Vidhan Sabha (288 seats) and Vidhan Parishad (78 seats)
- Lok Sabha seats
- 48
- Rajya Sabha seats
- 19
- Population (2011 Census)
- 112,374,333 — 9.28% of India; 45.22% urban
- Districts
- 36, in 6 revenue divisions
- High Court
- Bombay High Court
- GSDP (2025-26 projected)
- Rs 49,39,355 crore at current prices
- Per capita GSDP (2023-24)
- Rs 3,19,474, against an all-India per capita GDP of Rs 2,15,935
Role
Maharashtra is a federal actor of the first rank: the largest state economy in the Union, the second-most populous state, and the holder of 48 Lok Sabha seats and 19 Rajya Sabha seats. Its government exercises the ordinary State List powers — police and public order, land and land revenue, agriculture and irrigation, public health, school education, state excise and local government — through a bicameral legislature that only six Indian states retain: a 288-member Vidhan Sabha directly elected for five years, and a 78-member Vidhan Parishad that is indirectly elected and never wholly dissolved. The executive is a Council of Ministers appointed by the Governor and led by the Chief Minister, seated at the Mantralaya secretariat in Mumbai and superintending 36 districts across six revenue divisions. The state keeps two capitals, and the legislature physically moves: budget and monsoon sessions in Mumbai, the winter session in Nagpur. That rotation is not ceremony — it is the residue of the bargain that made the state, a standing concession to Vidarbha in the east against the gravitational pull of the Mumbai-Pune corridor in the west.
What is structurally distinctive about Maharashtra is the gap between what sits inside its borders and what it governs. Mumbai hosts the Reserve Bank of India, the national stock exchanges and the country’s financial market infrastructure; the state supplies the land, policing and municipal services those institutions run on, but the institutions themselves answer to the Union. The state’s own constitutional peculiarity is Article 371(2), which lets the President charge the Governor with a special responsibility for separate development boards for Vidarbha, Marathwada and the rest of Maharashtra, and for the equitable allocation of development funds among them — an admission written into the Constitution that the state was assembled from regions of unequal weight, and a rare instance of a Governor holding a substantive economic mandate rather than a formal one. The last two decades have tested a second set of institutional limits rather than economic ones. The Supreme Court struck down the state’s 2018 Maratha reservation for breaching the 50% ceiling, pushing the question into the OBC classification route. The 2022 collapse of the governing coalition produced a Constitution Bench judgment holding that both the Governor and the Speaker had acted contrary to law, yet unable to reverse the outcome because the Chief Minister had resigned rather than lost a floor vote. And the 2024 assembly election returned a majority so large that no party cleared the bar for Leader of the Opposition, reported as the first such vacancy in six decades. As of 2026-07-17 the state’s fiscal position runs a projected GSDP of Rs 49.39 lakh crore against a budgeted fiscal deficit of 2.8% of GSDP, with services at 64% of the economy and agriculture at 13%.
Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.
Timeline since 1947
- reference
Article 371(2) inserted — regional development boards under the Governor
The Constitution empowers the President to charge the Governor with a special responsibility for separate development boards for Vidarbha, Marathwada and the rest of Maharashtra, for equitable allocation of development funds across those areas subject to the needs of the state as a whole, and for equitable arrangements in technical education, vocational training and state employment. Board reports are to be laid before the state legislature annually.
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States Reorganisation Act creates bilingual Bombay State
The reorganisation declined a separate Marathi-speaking state and instead constituted a bilingual Bombay State covering Marathi and Gujarati areas with Bombay as capital. The Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti, founded on 6 February 1956, mobilised against the settlement; 106 demonstrators died over the course of the agitation.
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Maharashtra formed by the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960
Bombay State was partitioned into the Marathi-speaking State of Maharashtra and the Gujarati-speaking State of Gujarat. Mumbai and Nagpur were designated as the state's capitals, the dual-capital arrangement that still governs where the legislature sits.
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Mumbai attacks reshape the state's security apparatus
Coordinated attacks across south Mumbai from 26 to 29 November 2008 killed 175 people including nine attackers. The consequences ran through both tiers of the federation: the Union expanded National Security Guard hubs, tightened coastal security and created the National Investigation Agency, while the state police raised Force One as a dedicated counter-terrorism unit.
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Maratha reservation enacted, then struck down by the Supreme Court
The Maharashtra State Socially and Educationally Backward Class Act provided 16% reservation for Marathas in education and employment. In June 2019 the Bombay High Court upheld the classification but held the quantum excessive, cutting it to 13% in employment and 12% in education. In May 2021 the Supreme Court struck the Act down entirely, holding that it breached the 50% ceiling on total reservation and Article 14. The state's response has since run through the OBC route — the January 2024 issuance of Kunbi certificates extending OBC benefits to Marathas through the 'sage-soyare' definition — rather than a standalone quota.
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Coalition collapse, and a Supreme Court judgment on the limits of the Governor's discretion
A rebellion by roughly 40 of the governing party's 55 MLAs from 21 June 2022 broke the coalition and split the party in two. The Governor ordered a floor test for 30 June; the Chief Minister resigned on 29 June rather than face it. In May 2023 a Constitution Bench held that the Governor had called for the floor test without any communication from the rebel MLAs withdrawing support, and that the actions of the Governor and the Speaker were contrary to law. Because the incumbent had resigned rather than lost a vote, the Court found it could not reinstate the government — leaving the judgment a statement of constitutional limits without a remedy in the case itself.
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Assembly election returns a 235-seat majority and leaves the Leader of the Opposition post vacant
Turnout was 66.57%, up 5.13 points on the previous assembly election. The Mahayuti alliance took 235 of 288 seats against 46 for the Maha Vikas Aghadi. No opposition party reached the threshold to claim the office of Leader of the Opposition — reported as the first time in six decades that the post went unfilled in the Maharashtra assembly.
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2025-26 budget: Rs 7 lakh crore of spending against a 2.8% fiscal deficit
The state budgeted total expenditure excluding debt repayment of Rs 7,00,020 crore, a revenue deficit of Rs 45,891 crore (0.9% of GSDP), a fiscal deficit of Rs 1,36,235 crore (2.8% of GSDP) and net borrowings of Rs 97,847 crore. GSDP was projected at Rs 49,39,355 crore. Agriculture, manufacturing and services contributed 13%, 23% and 64% of the state economy in 2023-24.
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Samruddhi Mahamarg opens end to end
The 701 km Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, built by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation at a cost of about Rs 55,000 crore across 10 districts and 392 villages, was completed with the Igatpuri-Mumbai section. Opened in four phases from December 2022, it connects the state's two capitals and routes through Vidarbha and Marathwada, the regions Article 371(2) singles out for equitable development.
Frequently asked
- What is Maharashtra?
- Maharashtra is the Marathi-speaking state formed on 1 May 1960 when the Bombay Reorganisation Act split bilingual Bombay State into Maharashtra and Gujarat. It is India's largest state economy and its second-most populous, with 112.37 million people at the 2011 Census, 48 Lok Sabha seats and a projected 2025-26 GSDP of Rs 49.39 lakh crore. It is one of only six states with a bicameral legislature — a 288-seat Vidhan Sabha and a 78-seat Vidhan Parishad — and it keeps two capitals, Mumbai and Nagpur, with the winter session held in Nagpur. Its distinctive constitutional feature is Article 371(2), which allows the President to charge the Governor with a special responsibility for separate development boards for Vidarbha, Marathwada and the rest of Maharashtra, and for equitable allocation of development funds between them.
- When was Maharashtra established?
- Maharashtra was established 1960-05-01.
- What does Maharashtra do?
- Its remit covers State List subjects: law and order and the state police, land and land revenue, agriculture and irrigation, public health, school education, local government and state excise, A bicameral legislature — the 288-member Vidhan Sabha and the 78-member Vidhan Parishad — one of six states retaining a Legislative Council, Two capitals: Mumbai (Mantralaya secretariat, budget and monsoon sessions) and Nagpur (winter session), a regional-balance arrangement carried forward from the state's formation, Article 371(2) machinery: statutory development boards for Vidarbha, Marathwada and the rest of Maharashtra under a special responsibility of the Governor, Host to the Union's financial infrastructure in Mumbai — the Reserve Bank of India, the national stock exchanges and SEBI — which the state governs for land, policing and municipal services but does not control.
- What is the latest on Maharashtra?
- As of 2026-07-17: Samruddhi Mahamarg opens end to end. The 701 km Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, built by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation at a cost of about Rs 55,000 crore across 10 districts and 392 villages, was completed with the Igatpuri-Mumbai section. Opened in four phases from December 2022, it connects the state's two capitals and routes through Vidarbha and Marathwada, the regions Article 371(2) singles out for equitable development.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
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State government's official portal — departments, GRs, tenders and recruitment notices.
www.maharashtra.gov.in/
- Maharashtra Legislature Secretariat legislation
Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad — members, business and session records.
mls.org.in/
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Publishes the annual Economic Survey of Maharashtra and state statistical abstracts.
mahades.maharashtra.gov.in/
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Electoral rolls and state-level conduct of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls under the Election Commission.
ceoelection.maharashtra.gov.in/
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Independent analysis of GSDP, deficits, borrowing and departmental allocations.
prsindia.org/budgets/states/maharashtra-budget-analysis-2025