Saffron sweep in Maharashtra; Fadnavis poised to return as CM

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance on Saturday retained power in Maharashtra, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats, as the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi's dream of wresting power fizzled, with the opposition combine managing to garner just 50 seats.

The Election Commission announced that the BJP has won 132 seats, the Shiv Sena won 57, while the Nationalist Congress Party 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.

The Congress retained the Nanded Lok Sabha seat, with its candidate Ravindra Chavan defeating BJP's Santukrao Hambarde by 1,457 votes.

After the certainty of the poll outcome, the focus has now 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.

In his speech at the BJP headquarters in Delhi Saturday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Fadanvis his 'param mitra'.

"Maharashtra has broken all records, it is the biggest win for any party or pre-poll alliance in the last 50 years," Modi said, adding the message from the Maharashtra elections is that of unity and it is also an endorsement of the 'ek hai toh safe hai' (united we are safe) slogan.

There were reports that the swearing in of the new CM may take place as early as Monday at the Wankhede Stadium in south Mumbai, where Fadnavis was sworn in as the CM 10 years ago.

No opposition party bagged the minimum number of seats mandatory to claim the post of leader of opposition in the Lower House, where the BJP bettered its 2014 polls tally by 10 seats.

The norms for the post of leader of opposition in the Lower House stipulate that the party's MLAs number at least 10 per cent of the House strength and there is no provision to cobble up the numbers as an alliance.

The counting of votes in the elections held on November 20 began at 8 am.

Saturday's winners include BJP's Kalidas Kolambkar who defeated Shiv Sena-UBT)'s Shraddha Jadhav by 24,973 in Wadala constituency after 16 rounds to become a legislator for the ninth time in a row.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar won in their respective assembly constituencies, while senior Congress leaders Prithviraj Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat lost in theirs.

State Congress unit president Nana Patole won from Sakoli seat by 208 votes.

Leader of Opposition in assembly Vijay Wadettiwar of Congress won from Brahmapuri, defeating BJP's Krishnalal Sahare by 13971 votes.

Following is the number of victorious candidates from other parties: Samajwadi Party 2, Jan Surajya Shakti 2, Rashtriya Yuva Swabhiman Party 1, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha 1, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen 1, Communist Party of India-Marxist 1, Peasants and Workers Party of India 1, Rajarshi Shahu Vikas Aghadi 1 and Independents 2.

Shinde said the results of the assembly elections were historic, and showed to whom the Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena belong to.

Fadnavis said there was no dispute over the chief minister's post and leaders of Mahayuti will decide on the issue together as the saffron party-led coalition is heading for a landslide victory.

The results show that the state supports PM Narendra Modi, he said, and also thanked women voters.

"The opposition's efforts to propagate a fake narrative, and polarise voters based on religion was foiled by masses," said Fadnavis.

The deputy CM said he succeeded in breaking the 'chakravyuh' of opposition due to the support of voters, the BJP team and party leaders.

Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah called Fadnavis and congratulated him on the party's impressive performance in the Maharashtra assembly elections.

Sources close to Fadnavis told PTI that Shah called and congratulated him for the party's strong performance in the elections.

Sarita Fadnavis, mother of Devendra Fadnavis, also expressed happiness over Mahayuti's performance, and described her son as PM Modi's favourite.

On the Ladki Bahin Yojana, she said, "I don't have a daughter, but through this scheme, I now have so many daughters and their good wishes."

In the Mahayuti, the BJP contested 149 seats, Shiv Sena 81, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP fielded candidates in 59 constituencies.

In the MVA combine, the Congress fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena-UBT 95, and NCP-SP put up 86 candidates.

The final turnout in the polls was 66.05 per cent, up from 61.1 per cent in 2019.

Following is the party position in the outgoing assembly: the BJP 105, the Shiv Sena 41, the NCP 40, the Congress 45, the Shiv Sena-UBT 15, the NCP-SP 12, the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi 3, the Samajwadi Party 2, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen 2, the Prahar Janshakti Party 2, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena 1, the Communist Party of India-Marxist 1, the Peasants and Workers Party 1, the Swabhimani Paksh 1, the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh 1, the Jan Surajya Shakti 1, the Krantikari Shetkari Paksh 1 and Independents 13.