MUMBAI/RANCHI, 23 Nov: 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, voters in both states giving the parties in power an emphatic thumbs up.
The party was winning or leading in 132 of the 149 seats it contested in the powerhouse state. Together with its partners Shiv Sena and NCP, the ruling Mahayuti alliance could win 228 of the 288 seats in the state, leaving the Congress-Shiv Sena(UBT)-NCP(SP) tie-up virtually decimated with just 47 seats.
As the opposition reeled under the impact of the decisive mandate against it in Maharashtra, Jharkhand offered consolation with voters giving a possible two-third victory to the JMM-led alliance.
In the 81-seat Jharkhand assembly, the BJP had won or was leading in 20 seats, while the Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s JMM could score 35, the Congress 16, the RJD four and the CPI-ML in one, adding to 56 seats, according to the Election Commission website.
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.
The BJP was winning or ahead in 132 seats, close to the halfway mark of 144 on its own, while the Shiv Sena totted 56 and the NCP 41. In contrast, the Congress was ahead in just 16, the Shiv Sena(UBT) in 21 and the NCP(SP) in 10.
The mandate gives a fillip to the BJP, which won an unprecedented hat-trick in Haryana last month, and helps the party overcome some of its reverses in the general elections where it bagged just 240 seats.
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 on his part.
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.
In the ruling Mahayuti alliance, the BJP contested 149 assembly seats, the Shiv Sena 81 seats, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in 59 constituencies. In the MVA combine, the Congress fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena(UBT) 95 and the NCP(SP) 86.
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.
“We are going to get the reward for the work we did… and also for the manner in which we remained connected to the public,” Congress leader Rajesh Thakur told PTI Videos as the INDIA bloc neared victory in Jharkhand.
The BJP’s poll plank was driving out “infiltrators” from the Santhal Parganas region, but it seemed to have fallen flat in front of the ‘Adivasi’ card played by the JMM, which also sought the people’s sympathy over the arrest of Soren.
Bickering within the BJP over giving nominations to turncoats seemed to have cost the party, observers said. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP co-incharge for the assembly elections in Jharkhand, said the people’s mandate must be accepted as that is the true essence of democracy.
“The loss in Jharkhand is deeply painful for me personally, even though we secured victory in all five by-elections in Assam…,” he said in a post on X.
Sarma said the BJP fought the elections with a vision to protect the state from “infiltration” and to lead it on the path of development. (PTI)
