Explained: The BJP’s Maharashtra plan has not gone by the script, here’s why

The BJP leadership’s hopes of crossing the halfway mark in the 288 seater Assembly on its own do not appear to have been realised — until the final results are announced.

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If these trends hold, the results will be seen as a setback for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who had set his eyes on returning with a bigger seat tally than in 2014. The BJP, in the run-up to the elections, had managed to ensure that the entire electoral narrative revolves around nationalism and national security.

This has meant that in a large number of places concerns about economic slowdown and job losses did not occupy much of the BJP mindspace. The voter does not seem to have taken kindly to this.

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The BJP’s strategy of poaching leaders from other parties also seems to have not gone down well. Leaders like Udayana Raje Bhosale — who quit his Lok Sabha seat of Satara to join the BJP — were looking set to lose the bypoll by a big margin.

Explained: In likely saffron victory, rap for BJP, boost for Shiv Sena

This situation is obviously making the Shiv Sena happy. As the leads started coming in favour of the BJP-Shiv Sena combine, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray reminded his ally of the “fifty-fifty” formula for power-sharing in Maharashtra.