Mahayuti sweeps Maharashtra, INDIA triumphs in Jharkhand

MUMBAI/RANCHI, Nov 23: The BJP-led Mahayuti coloured Maharashtra a vivid saffron on Saturday as it swept aside the MVA for a landslide win while the opposition INDIA bloc retained Jharkhand as voters in both states gave the parties in power an emphatic thumbs up.
Counting of votes for the two assembly elections underscored with slogans such as batenge toh katenge and ek hain toh safe hai began at 8 am, signalling very soon that it was celebration time for the BJP in Maharashtra.
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance pocketed a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats, as the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi combine managed to garner just 46 seats. The Election Commission announced that the BJP has won 132 seats, the Shiv Sena won 57, while the NCP got 41 seats.
In the MVA, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidates won 10 seats, Congress won 16, while Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) won 20 seats.
As party workers smeared colour on each other, danced to drumbeats and distributed sweets in various places, Modi was fulsome in his praise for the Maharashtra victory.
“Development wins! Good governance wins! United we will soar even higher! Heartfelt gratitude to my sisters and brothers of Maharashtra, especially the youth and women of the state, for a historic mandate to the NDA. This affection and warmth is unparalleled,” Modi said in a post on X.
With the Mahayuti walking the road towards power in a runaway win that went ahead of what exit polls had predicted, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said, “People have rejected politics of hatred and revenge, accepted politics of welfare and development.”
Describing the day as historic, the Shiv Sena leader said the “people took election in their hands to give the Mahayuti a landslide victory”.
On the other side of the spectrum was Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut who alleged that there was a “big conspiracy” and something was “fishy”.
Adding that there was little doubt in his mind that money was used in the polls, Raut said, “How can all MLAs of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde win? How can Ajit Pawar, whose betrayal angered Maharashtra, win?”
Voters in the politically significant western state, which sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha and gave the MVA a decisive 30 seats, clearly decided to go against the trend of that parliamentary victory just five months ago.
After the certainty of the poll outcome, the focus shifted to BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, the architect of his party’s stunning victory. Political circles are abuzz with reports that the state’s second Brahmin to become the CM will don the post for the third time.
“Leaders of Mahayuti parties will decide (on next CM),” Fadnavis said.
The Congress, for which Priyanka Gandhi’s win the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll is the proverbial silver lining in a dark cloud, counted its reverses in Maharashtra.
“It’s devastating, heartbreaking for us … The BJP is leading due to the amazing ground work they must’ve done and seat distribution,” Congress spokesperson Lavanya Ballal said.
As the opposition reeled under the impact of the decisive mandate against it in Maharashtra, Jharkhand offered consolation with Hemant Soren’s JMM-led alliance storming to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the BJP-led NDA which managed only 24 seats. The BJP won 21 seats and emerged as the second largest party.
The majority mark in the state assembly is 41 seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the JMM-led alliance for its win in Jharkhand and thanked the people of the state for their support to the BJP.
In Jharkhand, Chief Minister Hemant Soren expressed his gratitude to the people of the state for the INDIA bloc’s stellar performance and said it had passed the exam of democracy. (PTI)
qElection-related reports on Pages 5 and 7