The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the largest party in Maharashtra as the counting for the recent assembly polls is still underway. The BJP's stellar performance in the state elections catapulted the ruling Mahayuti alliance past the 200-mark.
As per trends on the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Mahayuti is comfortably perched at 220 seats and is now looking to form the government in the state.
As per the EC, BJP was leading in 125 seats, Shiv Sena in 56 seats and Ajit Pawar's NCP in 37 seats whereas two Independents backed by the ruling alliance won. As part of the Mahayuti, the BJP contested on 148 seats, Shiv Sena on 83, Ajit Pawar's NCP on 59 seats.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is tottering on 55 seats, with Congress winning 19 seats. The Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) are leading 18 and 15 seats, respectively. Three independent candidates backed by the MVA won from their respective seats.
The BJP is leading on 20 out of 24 safe seats as well as 19 seats where the party is considered to be weak. The saffron party is also winning 51 out of the 62 seats considered relatively safe whereas it is winning on 91 of the 140 seats where the party is considered very weak.
Top leads for the BJP are Devendra Fadnavis (Nagpur South West), Sudhir Mungantiwar (Ballarpur), Kishor Jorgewar (Chandrapur), Chandrashekhar Bawankule (Kamthi), Sanjay Savkare (Bhusawal), Dr Vijaykumar Krushanrao Gavit (Nandurbhar), and Girish Mahajan (Jamner).
This is a considerable rise from the saffron party's numbers in the 2019 assembly polls. In 2019, the BJP bagged 105 seats whereas the undivided Shiv Sena won 56 seats, taking the alliance's total number of seats to 161 seats.
It can also be considered a robust comeback from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls setback when the BJP won only 9 constituencies. The BJP seems to be reaping the benefits of the Mahayuti's Ladki Bahin scheme as the scheme augured well with the female voters.
Not only this, the party's switch from Batenge toh Katenge to Ek Hain toh Safe Hain just in time has also helped the saffron party.