Maharashtra Assembly Election Results 2024: BJP-led Mahayuti vs Congress' MVA (File).
The Mahayuti is en route to a record win in the Maharashtra Assembly election, in which no alliance has ever crossed the magic 200-seat mark.
The ruling alliance - led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party factions led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar - had won 107 seats and was ahead in 123 others of the state's 288 seats at 5.45 pm. The Maha Vikas Aghadi - fronted by the Congress and the Sena and NCP groups led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar - had won 22 and was ahead in 24.
Within the Mahayuti, the BJP leads; the saffron party has won 55 and is leading in 78 so far, while the Shinde Sena has won 28 and is ahead in as many. Ajit Pawar's NCP has won 25 and is leading in 15..
READ | Shinde, Ajit Pawar In Focus As Breakaway Leaders Upstage Mentors
Across the aisle in the MVA, the Congress has won five and is leading in 11 of the 101 seats it has entered, while Sharad Pawar's NCP has won six and is ahead in four of the 86 it contested. The Thackeray Sena has won 11 and is leading in nine of the 95 seats allotted to it..
Big Names
Outgoing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy, Ajit Pawar, and Aaditya Thackeray, the son of ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, are among the many big names contesting this election.
Also in the spotlight is Zeeshan Siddiqui of the Ajit Pawar NCP faction; Mr Siddiqui is the son of ex-Maharashtra minister Baba Siddiqui, who was shot dead by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang last month.
Eknath Shinde faced Thackeray Sena leader Kedar Dighe - the nephew of his mentor, Anand Dighe - for Thane's Kopri-Pachpakhadi seat. Mr Shinde won by nearly 1.21 lakh votes.
Ajit Pawar faces a Pawar vs Pawar battle against uncle Sharad Pawar's grandnephew, Yugendra Pawar, in the family stronghold of Baramati. Ajit Pawar is leading that contest by over one lakh votes.
READ | Ajit Pawar Ahead Of Nephew Yugendra In Baramati Family Battle
Aaditya Thackeray was up against ex-Congress veteran Milind Deora, who jumped to the Shinde Sena faction. The two are contesting the Worli seat, which Thackeray junior won by nearly 9,000 votes.
READ | "My Karmabhoomi": Milind Deora On Worli Battle vs Aaditya Thackeray
Zeeshan Siddiqui - who declared he would carry on his father's "roar" - faced Varun Sardesai, Uddhav Thackeray's nephew, in Bandra (East). But Mr Siddiqui lost by over 11,000 votes.
Voting for this election took place in a single phase on Wednesday.
The Maharashtra Assembly has 288 seats and the majority mark is 145.
Race For Chief Minister's Post
Meanwhile, away from the ballot boxes the chief ministerial race has kicked off, but it is all politeness (at least in public) for now. On paper it will be a straight fight between Devendra Fadnavis and Mr Shinde.
The BJP's Devendra Fadnavis - a two-time holder of that post (even if the second was a matter of days only) - offered some insight into that vexed query, declaring a decision had already been taken. Alliance leaders, he said, had been instructed by Amit Shah that it will be made after a consultation between all.
READ | Who Will Be Next Chief Minister? What Devendra Fadnavis Said
"Let the final results come... the same way as we fought elections together, all three parties will sit together and take a decision," Mr Shinde, who defended his Kopri-Pachpakhadi seat, said.
What Exit Polls Said
The MVA had only been given a (very) slim chance of upsetting the in-power BJP-led alliance's applecart in the final election of the year; only one of 11 exit polls studied by NDTV believed it can win. Three others were on the fence but even they tilted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party.
An average of those 11 exit polls gives the Mahayuti 155 seats and the MVA only 120, with smaller parties and independent candidates expected to get the remaining 13.
But a health warning: exit polls often get it wrong.
A majority of those exit polls predicted a big win for the Mahayuti.
READ | NDA Has Edge But 3 Exit Polls Predict Hung Assembly
Across the aisle, only one - Electoral Edge - expected the Congress' alliance to win and, even then, by five seats only, with 20 seats from smaller parties and independents in play for the BJP.
However, Thackeray Sena MP Sanjay Raut has rubbished the predictions, pointing to incorrect previews of the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir elections and insisting the MVA will win.
READ | Mahayuti vs MVA On "Fraud" Exit Polls As Maharashtra Awaits Result
"They said Congress would win Haryana but what happened? They said Modiji would get 400 seats in the Lok Sabha... but what happened there? You will see... we will win 160-165 seats," he declared.
What Happened In 2019?
The 2019 election resulted in a thumping win for the BJP and the undivided Sena; the saffron party won 105 seats (down 17 from 2014) and its ally 56 (down seven).
However, two long-time allies fell out, quite spectacularly, in the following days after they failed to agree a power-sharing deal. Mr Thackeray then led his Sena into a surprise alliance with the Congress and Sharad Pawar's NCP (then also undivided) to shut out a furious BJP.
Much to the surprise of many, the ruling tripartite alliance lasted for nearly three years despite the divergent political beliefs and ideologies of the Sena and the Congress-NCP.
Eventually, it was an internal rebellion led by Sena leader Eknath Shinde that ousted the MVA government. Mr Shinde led Sena lawmakers into a deal with the BJP, forcing Mr Thackeray to resign and allowing himself to be named as the new Chief Minister.
The NCP split a year later in a near-identical process that saw Ajit Pawar and lawmakers loyal to him joining the BJP-Shinde Sena, and he then became a Deputy Chief Minister.
Since then, Maharashtra politics has been roiled in controversy that extended to the Supreme Court, which heard petitions and cross-petitions on disqualification of MLAs and, in the build-up to this election, pleas on which Sena and NCP faction is the 'real' one.
With input from agencies
NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.