Maharashtra’s ruling alliance was headed for an overwhelming victory in the state’s Assembly election as per trends on Saturday morning.
The ruling Mahayuti was ahead in 221 seats, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi in 53 seats, and others in 12 seats, according to Election Commission data.
The Bharatiya Janata Party was ahead in 127 seats, the Shiv Sena group led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in 56 and the Nationalist Congress Party group led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in 38.
The BJP, Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP group have won two seats each till 1.40 pm.
In the Maha Vikas Aghadi camp, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray was ahead in 18 seats, the Congress in 17 and the Nationalist Congress Party group led by Sharad Pawar in 15.
Shinde thanked voters for giving a “thumping majority” to the ruling coalition, and said that the electorate had given its stamp of approval on the work that it did in the past two-and-a-half years, ANI reported. “This is a landslide win,” he said.
The counting of votes for elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly began at 8 am on Saturday.
The election was held in a single phase on November 20, along with the second phase of the Jharkhand Assembly election.
Maharashtra registered a voter turnout of 66.05%, the highest since 1995.
Most exit polls have predicted that the ruling Mahayuti alliance will cross the majority mark of 145 seats and retain power. An average of exit poll predictions by NDTV has forecast 155 seats for the ruling alliance, 120 for the Maha Vikas Aghadi and 13 for others.
The Mahayuti alliance comprises the BJP, the Shiv Sena group led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Nationalist Congress Party group led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi comprises the Thackeray Sena, the Sharad Pawar-headed NCP faction and the Congress.
Among the constituencies that will witness key contests is the Kopri Pachpakhadi seat in the Thane city, where Chief Minister Shinde is up against the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’s Kedar Dighe.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis contested from his traditional stronghold of Nagpur South West, with the Congress’ Prafulla Gudadhe being his principal challenger.
In Mumbai’s Worli seat, Uddhav Sena leader and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray contested against Rajya Sabha MP and former Union Minister of State Milind Deora.
The Baramati seat in the Pune district will witness a battle between the two Pawar clans. In the election on November 20, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar contested against his nephew Yugendra Pawar, who is the grand-nephew of party founder Sharad Pawar.
Congress chief Nana Patole contested from the Sakoli constituency in the Bhandara district against the BJP’s Avinash Brahmankar.
Maharashtra’s politics has seen several tectonic shifts in the past five years, leading to the state now having as many as six major parties in the fray.
In 2019, the BJP and the then-united Shiv Sena fought the Assembly election in an alliance, as did the Congress and the then-united Nationalist Congress Party. The BJP-led alliance won 161 seats, and the Opposition coalition won 98 constituencies.
However, after the results, the Shiv Sena refused to support the BJP, claiming that the two parties had agreed on the chief minister’s post being divided between them for two-and-a-half years each.
On November 23, 2019, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the chief minister after a faction of the NCP agreed to support the Hindutva party. However, the Sharad Pawar-led party later refused to support the government, because of which Fadnavis resigned just three days later.
On November 28, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister, heading a coalition that also comprised the NCP and Congress. This alliance came to be known as the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
However, in June 2022, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde led a rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray and crossed over to the BJP-led coalition. Thackeray resigned as the chief minister on June 29, 2022, and Shinde took over the post a day later.
A year later, in July 2023, Ajit Pawar of the NCP splintered his organisation and joined the ruling Mahayuti government. He is now the deputy chief minister of the state along with the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis.
Earlier this month, Ajit Pawar told The News Minute-Newslaundry that industrialist Gautam Adani was present at key meetings regarding government formation in Maharashtra after state Assembly elections in 2019, sparking a political furore. However, on November 15, the deputy chief minister retracted his statement, and said he made the claim by mistake.
Also read: