Riding on the saffron wave, the ruling Mahayuti alliance pulled off a landslide win in Maharashtra assembly elections, dashing the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s hopes for a come back in the politically crucial state.
The Mahayuti parties are winning/leading in at least 230 seats in the 288-member house, as per the latest trends, with the BJP—the major constituent in the alliance—set to become the single largest party. The saffron party is leading in 132 seats, close to the halfway mark of 144 on its own.
#WATCH | Mumbai | On Mahayuti's victory in assembly elections, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis says, "The people of Maharashtra have given us an unprecedented victory. This shows that people are with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In line with the slogan he gave 'Ek hain… pic.twitter.com/B3yACFiWyy
— ANI (@ANI) November 23, 2024
The thumping victory is another shot in the arm for the BJP as it comes a little over a month after the Haryana elections where the saffron party piped the Congress to retain power for the third consecutive term.
Among other Mahayuti constituents, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena has leads in 56 and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party in 35.
A pall of gloom descended on the MVA camps with the alliance is ahead in just 53 seats—19 less that its 2019 numbers. The Congress was ahead in just 21, the Shiv Sena(UBT) in 17 and the NCP(SP) in 13.
Amid the massive drubbing in Maharashtra, the INDIA bloc found solace in Jharkhand where the ruling alliance is set to win 55 seats, leaving the opposition NDA with just 25.
In the 81-seat Jharkhand assembly, Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is leading in 30 seats while its ally Congress in 14. The opposition BJP is ahead in 27 seats while the AJSU Party, LJP (Ram Vilas) and JD(U) were ahead in one seat each in the tribal-dominated state.
The ‘Adivasi’ card played by the JMM seemed to have outsmarted the BJP campaign which mainly focused on driving out Bangfladeshi "infiltrators" from the Santha Parganas region
‘We fought like a team’
Responding to the election results, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde thanked the BJP central leadership for their support in prioritising the state.
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"I thank all the workers of Mahayuti. PM Modi, Amit Shah bhai, Nadda ji - all supported us. They gave priority to Maharashtra. I am proud that I have been proven right about what I had said that we will win 200 seats. We (Mahayuti) fought like a team," he said.
"Every section of society voted for us because of our development efforts. The public has noticed our work and responded through their ballots," he said.
The chief minister cited Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, which provides Rs 1,500 to eligible women, as key factor in the election's outcome.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated Shinde and his deputies—Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar—on the thumping victory in Maharashtra.
Sources close to Fadnavis confirmed that Shah called and congratulated him for the party's strong performance in the November 20 elections.
Fadnavis, meanwhile, hailed the performance of the ruling Mahayuti in the assembly polls and credited it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the latter's 'ek hai toh safe hai' slogan.
To a question on who will be the chief minister, Shinde said Mahayuti did not have a definitive formula that the party winning the most seats will get the chief minister post.
