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The ruling Mahayuti alliance crossed the majority mark of 145 in early trends in the Maharashtra Assembly elections as counting of votes for the 288-member Assembly began at 8 am on Saturday.
Click here to check live updates of vote counting in Maharashtra.
Counting of votes is also being held for the Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll, where polling was held on November 20, the same day when Assembly elections in Maharashtra took place. The majority mark needed for a party or an alliance to form the government is 145.
The ruling Mahayuti coalition, comprising the BJP, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the NCP helmed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, is aiming to retain power, while the MVA consisting of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, is aiming for a comeback.
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In the Mahayuti alliance, the BJP contested 149 seats, Shiv Sena 81 and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP fielded candidates in 59 constituencies. For the MVA, the Congress fielded 101 candidates, Shiv Sena (UBT) 95 and the NCP (SP) put up 86 candidates.
A total of 4,136 candidates contested, up from 3,239 in the 2019 polls. Of these, 2,086 were independents. Rebels were in the fray in over 150 seats, with candidates from the Mahayuti and MVA contesting against their party’s official nominees.
Other parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party and the AIMIM also contested the polls, with the BSP fielding 237 candidates and AIMIM putting up 17 candidates.
While most exit polls predict a victory for the Mahayuti alliance, three suggest that neither the Mahayuti nor the MVA would secure a majority to form the next government in Maharashtra. The term of the present state Assembly ends on November 26.
A total of 288 counting centres have been set up for the counting of votes, including one for the Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll. As many as 288 counting observers oversee each Assembly constituency, with two observers assigned to monitor counting in Nanded, an official said.
There were 1,00,186 polling booths in Maharashtra this time, compared to 96,654 booths in the 2019 polls. The final voter turnout was recorded at 66.05 per cent, up from 61.1 per cent in 2019, according to election officials.
Several parts of the state saw high voter turnout, with Kolhapur district leading with 76.63 per cent polling, followed by 75.26 per cent in Gadchiroli, which has some Left Wing Extremism affected pockets. The lowest turnout was in Mumbai island city at 52.07 per cent. Mumbai suburban district recorded 55.95 per cent polling.
Ahead of counting, Mumbai Police issued an order prohibiting any assembly of people within a 300-metre radius of all the 36 counting centres in the city, which has 36 seats.
No person, other than an official engaged with the election process or public servant engaged in duty, shall loiter or form any group within 300-metre radius from any counting centre, a police official said. The order is effective from 6 am on Thursday till midnight on November 24 (Sunday).
In the 2019 polls, the BJP and Shiv Sena, then undivided, won comfortably with the saffron party getting 105 seats and its ally 56. But, the two long-time allies fell out over differences in sharing of the chief ministerial post.
Uddhav Thackeray then forged an unlikely alliance with Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (also undivided) and became the Chief Minister of the MVA government for three years.
However, in 2022, a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde resulted in the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led dispensation. Shinde ultimately joined hands with the BJP and became the Chief Minister.
A year later, the NCP also split in similar circumstances that saw Ajit Pawar rebelling against his uncle Sharad Pawar and then leading a group of NCP MLAs to join the BJP-Shinde Sena government. Ajit Pawar became the Deputy Chief Minister along with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis.