BJP-led Mahayuti crosses majority mark in Maharashtra, MVA lag behind

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance crossed the majority mark in Maharashtra, early trends showed on Saturday morning. The party was leading in 214 out of the state’s 288 seats.

The Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is leading in 63 seat, early trends showed.

The counting of votes in Jharkhand and Maharashtra began at 8 am on Saturday. The BJP-led NDA alliance is leading in Jharkhand as well.

In Maharashtra, the assembly election was conducted on November 20. The state logged a voter turnout of 66 per cent, surpassing its 2019 tally of 61 per cent.

The Mahayuti alliance, comprising BJP, Shiv Sena and Congress, hopes to retain power in Maharashtra. The Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi, also comprising Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SCP), aims to wrest power from the BJP.

This is the first assembly election in Maharashtra since the split in Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party.

Most exit polls predicted the victory of the BJP-led alliance. Some, however, predicted a neck-and-neck fight in Maharashtra.

The BJP contested 149 assembly seats, Shiv Sena 81 seats, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP fielded candidates in 59 constituencies. In the opposition’s MVA camp, the Congress fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena (UBT) 95, and NCP (SCP) 86 candidates. Unaligned parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party and All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) contested 237 and 17 seats respectively.

The NDA has fielded candidates in 68 seats in Jharkhand, while allies AJSU Party fielded 10. In the INDIA bloc, JMM fielded candidates in 43 seats, Congress in 30, RJD in 6, and CPI(ML) in 4.