Maharashtra, Jharkhand Election Results 2024 Highlights: While BJP bats for Fadnavis as Maharashtra CM, Shinde Sena demands ‘Bihar pattern’

The Winter Session kicked off on Monday. Adressing reporters outside Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “I hope it is productive and filled with constructive debates and discussions.” Taking a dig at Opposition parties, he added, 'Those rejected by people try to disrupt Parliament too.'

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Maharashtra minister Deepak Kesarkar has said his party legislators feel Eknath Shinde should continue as the chief minister of the state, where the ruling Mahayuti scored a landslide victory in the assembly polls.

Kesarkar met Shinde at the latter's residence in Mumbai on Sunday, a day after the Mahayuti coalition sweeped the Maharashtra polls. "Shiv Sena MLAs feel Shinde should continue in the post because under his leadership the Mahayuti worked very well and performed spectacularly in polls," Kesarkar told reporters.

He, however, added that Shinde and Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis (BJP) and Ajit Pawar (NCP) will take a unanimous decision on the CM issue. --PTI

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is likely to back BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis to become the chief minister of Maharashtra after the Mahayuti alliance retained power in a sweeping win in the Assembly elections.

A source said, “Generally, the RSS never interferes with the BJP’s decision-making.” Yet, at times, it subtly conveys the message by listing its priorities while keeping the larger welfare of the state and country in mind.

NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule has said her party, which won just 10 seats in the Maharashtra assembly elections, will introspect over the poll results and pledged to work towards a capable, inclusive and progressive state.

In a statement on X, the Baramati Lok Sabha member on Sunday said they respect the people's mandate. She promised to rebuild the party and said it would move forward with determination despite its dismal show. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) collectively bagged only 46 of the state's 288 assembly seats.

“We respect and humbly accept the verdict of the people in the assembly elections. This result is a moment for deep reflection and renewal. We will introspect, learn, and rebuild with honesty, hard work, and an unshakable commitment to the values we stand for,” Sule wrote. -- PTI

Faced with potential polarisation in Maharashtra because of the Maratha quota agitation, the BJP formed a meticulous strategy to consolidate the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), who were opposed to giving Marathas reservation benefits allocated for Kunbis (one of the largest OBC groups), and that strategy paid rich dividends in the Assembly polls as the party stormed back to power with its Mahayuti allies.

One main feature of the BJP’s game plan was the creation of more than 20 sub-corporations that reached out to small OBC communities, estimated to be around 350. OBCs comprise around 38% of the overall state population, as per the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission report.

The first step was taken in August 2023 when the Maharashtra Finance and Development Corporation issued notifications for creating these sub-corporations. These bodies that come under the state OBC Department are meant to provide financial aid to those in need from the specific communities for educational, business or other purposes. The sub-corporations are also meant to undertake activities aimed at the economic development of the community members. Read Full Report

Buoyed by NCP’s spectacular performance, Parth Pawar, son of party’s national president Ajit Pawar, today caused quite a buzz in political circles as he, in what is being deciphered as an indirect appeal, urged MLAs belonging to Sharad Pawar’s party to join hands with his father.

”I am deeply grateful to the people of Maharashtra for entrusting us with a clear mandate for development and good governance,” Parth tweeted on X. ”I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all elected representatives from their respective constituencies, who will strive tirelessly for the welfare and progress of every citizen in this great state,” he said.

Parth also said, ”I also warmly welcome Members of the Legislative Assembly who place their trust in the leadership of Honourable Ajit Dada Pawar to join the ranks of NCP. Together, let us work towards our shared vision of building a true welfare state.” Read Full Report

Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said that Ladki Bahin Yojana may have played a major role in the defeat of his party and the MVA alliance in the Maharashtra Assembly elections in which the BJP-led Mahayuti swept back to power in a landslide victory by winning 234 seats.Pawar also claimed that Mahayuti told voters that they would end the Ladki Bahin scheme if the alliance is not voted back to power. The NCP(SP) chief also said that slogans like “batenge to katenge” during the campaigning led to polarisation of voters.In his first reaction after the Assembly election results, Pawar told mediapersons in Karad: “People have given their verdict. I am in public life for years. I have not experienced anything like this… we will analyse it.” Read Full Report

The huge gap between the NDA and INDIA bloc numbers in Jharkhand (56:22 seats) hides another number – that in terms of vote share, at 33.2%, the BJP that fought 68 seats was only marginally behind the JMM and Congress’s combined share of 39.02%, after putting up candidates in 75 seats. This meant that the BJP vote share remained almost the same as in 2019 (33.37%), while the JMM and Congress got more than five years ago (32.6%).

So how did the BJP end up with just 21 seats compared to the JMM’s 34? Plus, why does the BJP’s tally include just one tribal seat?

AJSU Party's lone MLA Nirmal Mahto on Sunday offered to resign from his seat Mandu, so that party chief Sudesh Mahto who lost the polls from the Silli constituency could get elected to the assembly.

AJSU Party, a BJP ally, fought the assembly elections in Jharkhand on 10 seats but won only one and that with a wafer-thin margin of 231 votes. "I have sent the letter resigning as an MLA to Sudesh Mahto with a request to accept it so that he can contest from here in the bypoll that would be forced and get elected to the assembly," said the newly-elected Mandu MLA.

Sudesh Mahto lost the Silli seat by a margin of 23,867 votes to JMM candidate Amit Kumar.

In Mandu, Nirmal Mahto defeated Jai Prakash Bhai Patel of the Congress. He polled 90,871 votes, while Patel got 90,640 votes. (PTI)

After the Mahayuti alliance won 235 constituencies in Maharashtra Assembly Polls, NCP chief whip, Anil Patil claimed there is unrest in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi as its five to six MLAs might join the ruling alliance in the next few months. Patil who retained his Amalner assembly seat, says “There is tremendous unrest among some NCP (SP), Congress and Sena (UBT) MLAs who have been re-elected. Those having good relations with us have expressed concerns over MVA’s massive defeat,” It shouldn’t be a surprise if we see five to six turncoats, Patil told a Marathi news channel.

A day, after the BJP bit the dust in Jharkhand, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday, said he had never claimed that the party would win the assembly polls in the eastern state. The Assam CM stressed the urgency for the JMM-led alliance to perform its constitutional duty of identifying and deporting infiltrators from the eastern state.

Addressing a press conference here, Sarma said, "Whenever you (media) had asked me here about Jharkhand, I had said that it is a difficult state. I never claimed that we would win. It was a tough job for our party to fight there but we did a good job under the given circumstances." Sarma, who had practically camped in Jharkhand to campaign for the party ahead of the assembly elections and claimed that infiltrators were posing a threat to the eastern state, reiterated the need for the government to act against them.

"It is the constitutional duty of the government to act against infiltration. How much they will do won't be right for me to prejudge. As chief minister of Assam, I won't comment on the matter any longer. I said whatever I had to when I was there as the party's co-in-charge," the BJP leader said. 

(PTI)

The incumbent Mahayuti registered a comprehensive win in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, securing 235 seats and 49.6% of the vote share, leaving the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) behind at 49 seats and 35.3% of the votes. An analysis of the vote shares and winning margins in each seat shows the extent of the Mahayuti’s dominance – the alliance won 138 of its seats with a vote share above 50% and an average winning margin more than double that of the MVA.

Across the state, candidates secured more than 50% of the vote share in 154 seats, up from 129 such seats in 2019 and just 55 in 2014. This year, the MVA won only 16 such seats, with the majority of its wins settled by much narrower contests.

A day after the Mahayuti was swept back to power in a landslide in Maharashtra, the ruling alliance partners were under pressure to take a call on who should be the next Chief Minister.

The BJP, which spearheaded the Mahayuti return by securing 132 of its 230-seat tally in the Maharashtra House of 288, maintained a studious silence but came under pressure from its MLAs who called for a CM from the party, many among them rooting for Devendra Fadnavis, currently the Deputy Chief Minister.

Ahead of the four-week winter session of Parliament starting Monday, the Opposition armed itself with issues ranging from the US indictment of industrialist Gautam Adani to the unrest in Manipur to counter the ruling NDA led by the BJP which is on a high after back-to-back electoral wins in Haryana and Maharashtra.

Leaders of the Government and the Opposition met Sunday to deliberate on the session and there appeared to be a perceptible change in mood in the two camps as compared to the last session. The BJP, which appeared dispirited after under-performing in the Lok Sabha elections, is in a triumphant mood after spearheading the landslide for the ruling Mahayuti in Maharashtra while the Opposition, despite the reversals, is hoping to regroup.

Faced with potential polarisation in Maharashtra because of the Maratha quota agitation, the BJP formed a meticulous strategy to consolidate the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), who were opposed to giving Marathas reservation benefits allocated for Kunbis (one of the largest OBC groups), and that strategy paid rich dividends in the Assembly polls as the party stormed back to power with its Mahayuti allies.

One main feature of the BJP’s game plan was the creation of more than 20 sub-corporations that reached out to small OBC communities, estimated to be around 350. OBCs comprise around 38% of the overall state population, as per the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission report. Read More

Former CM Champai Soren on Sunday said the BJP's movement against the alleged increasing Bangladeshi infiltration in Jharkhand was social in nature and not political or aimed at elections. Soren, who won the Seraikela seat in the assembly polls, claimed that tribals have become a minority in many districts of the state, including Pakur and Sahibganj.

"As we have said earlier, our movement against the ever-increasing Bangladeshi infiltration in Jharkhand is not a political or election issue, but a social campaign. We clearly believe that infiltrators should not get any kind of protection on this land of heroes," he said in a post on X in Hindi.

"Today, the tribal community has become a minority in many districts, including Pakur and Sahibganj. What will happen if we cannot protect the lands of the indigenous people and the dignity of our women?" he added.

Soren announced the BJP would very soon launch the next phase of its campaign in the Santhal Parganas over the issue. "Governments will come and go, parties will be formed and dissolved but our society must remain, our tribal identity must remain, otherwise nothing will be left," he said.

(PTI)

Dr Babasaheb Deshmukh is one of the few MLAs in Maharashtra Assembly who not only withstood the Mahayuti wave but also fought off the MVA candidate to win the Sangola Assembly Seat in Solapur district. Deshmukh—the only Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) MLA in the state—declared winner on Saturday by a comfortable margin of over 25,000 votes, said he was able to pull it off as he knows the heart of the people. Read More

In the 38 Maharashtra seats where Muslims make up more than 20% of the population, the BJP raised its tally to 14 this time, up from 11 in 2019. The Congress showed the biggest slide, going down from 11 seats five years ago to only five this time.

The combined Mahayuti’s tally, of 22, was also ahead of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)’s 13 in these 38 seats. While Mahayuti members Shiv Sena and NCP won six and two seats each, on the MVA side, the Sena (UBT) got six seats and the NCP (SP) two.

A day after the Mahayuti alliance clinched a landslide victory in the Maharashtra Assembly Elections, NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said he was right in pitting his grandson Yugendra Pawar against uncle Ajit Pawar in the Baramati constituency. “There can be no comparison between Ajit Pawar and Yugendra Pawar,” added the NCP supremo speaking at Karad. Ajit Pawar won with 1,81,132 votes against his nephew who was 1,00,899 behind him. 

Speaking at Karad, NCP(SP) Supremo, Sharad Pawar said on Sunday, since MVA was confident of its win after the Lok Sabha elections mandate, the results of the Assembly elections were not anticapted. "The Maharashtra assembly poll results not on expected lines. will study reasons and go to people," said the politician who did not stand this time in Baramati.

"This is people's decision, women's participation in large numbers could be reason for Mahayuti sweep in Maharashtra polls. We (MVA) were more confident after Lok Sabha results. It seems we needed to work more. No qualms in accepting Ajit Pawar got more seats in Maharashtra polls, but everyone knows who is the NCP founder," said Sharad Pawar. 

With PTI inputs

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is likely to back BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis to become the chief minister of Maharashtra after the Mahayuti alliance retained power in a sweeping win in the Assembly elections.

A source said, “Generally, the RSS never interferes with the BJP’s decision-making.” Yet, at times, it subtly conveys the message by listing its priorities while keeping the larger welfare of the state and country in mind.

“I am the Abhimanyu of the modern era. I know how to break the Chakravyuha.” When Devendra Gangadhar Fadnavis made this bold assertion post the BJP’s poor Lok Sabha performance in Maharashtra, it was seen as the kind of bravado the Deputy Chief Minister has come to be known for.

Today, few would grudge Fadnavis’s claim of having emerged standing at the end of a Mahabharat, as the BJP put the Lok Sabha setback in Maharashtra behind it to win its most Assembly seats in the state.

A day after the Mahayuti alliance won 235 Maharashtra Assembly seats while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi secured only 49 seats, NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal said, "Ajit Pawar could also be the CM, (NCP's) strike rate is very good. A discussion will soon be held in this regard." 

After the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance’s decisive victory in the Jharkhand Assembly elections, Hemant Soren is set to take oath as Chief Minister on November 28. Speaking to reporters outside Raj Bhawan, Soren confirmed the swearing-in ceremony would take place on Thursday, November 28. The coalition met Governor Santosh Gangwar in Ranchi around 4 pm Sunday to stake their claim for government formation under Soren’s leadership.

“Today, we have begun the process of the formation of the new government; as part of that process, we have tendered resignations from our current positions and placed a request and staked a claim to form the new government. The Governor has handed me the responsibility of interim CM and invited us to form the government,” Soren said. 

After Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) led government's decisive win in the Jharkhand Assembly elections, Hemant Soren is likely to take oath as Chief Minister on November 28, Congress leader Subodh Kant said in an interview with news agency ANI.

A meeting to elect the leader of the INDIA bloc in the state was held Sunday under the chairmanship of JMM executive president Hemant Soren. “We will elect the leader of the coalition and without wasting time, take decisions on government formation,” Congress’s Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir said, as per news agency PTI.   

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Sunday said that the Congress will ensure the newly-elected Mahayuti government fulfils promises it made to the people of the state in its election manifesto and speeches.

Addressing a press conference here, the Congress leader said the Mahayuti, which banked on the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme for its victory in the state election, should immediately fulfil its promise of raising the monthly allowance for women from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,100.

Patole himself won by 208 votes, one of the lowest margins, from the Sakoli assembly constituency in Bhandara district.

The Congress leader said the assembly election results were unexpected for the opposition Maha Vikas Agahdi (MVA) and the people of Maharashtra.

He said, "People are discussing how the Mahayuti could manage such a big win. They are confused. We do not want to comment or talk about EVMs, and it is the need of the hour to find out how it all happened, and accordingly, the Congress take necessary steps." He said the All India Congress Committee (AICC) will conduct an inquiry into the outcome of the election and study what went wrong.

(PTI)

A meeting chaired by JMM executive president Hemant Soren was underway here on Sunday to elect the leader of the INDIA bloc in Jharkhand, a day after the coalition registered a massive victory in the state assembly elections, winning 56 of the 81 seats, leaders of the alliance said.

Soren has sought time from the governor at 4 pm to stake a claim for government formation, PTI reported, quoting sources. 

Soren retained the Barhait seat, defeating BJP's Gamliyel Hembrom by a margin of 39,791 votes. Soren secured 95,612 votes, while Hembrom got 55,821 votes. "We will elect the leader of the coalition and without wasting time, take decisions on government formation," Congress general secretary and its Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir said.

(With PTI inputs)

Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Sunday said the Mahayuti leaders and BJP leadership will decide who will be the next chief minister of the state.

Bawankule also said the people of Maharashtra have rejected the Congress, noting that its state unit chief Nana Patole won by a margin of just around 200 votes.

Bawankule here said all sections of the society supported the BJP in the Maharashtra assembly polls. On the issue of the next CM of the state, he said the Mahayuti leaders and the BJP leadership will decide on it. He also said the Congress' lies were to blame for no party getting enough seats to stake a claim for the post of leader of opposition in the assembly. 

(PTI)

The huge gap between the NDA and INDIA bloc numbers in Jharkhand (56:22 seats) hides another number – that in terms of vote share, at 33.2%, the BJP that fought 68 seats was only marginally behind the JMM and Congress’s combined share of 39.02%, after putting up candidates in 75 seats. This meant that the BJP vote share remained almost the same as in 2019 (33.37%), while the JMM and Congress got more than five years ago (32.6%).

So how did the BJP end up with just 21 seats compared to the JMM’s 34? Plus, why does the BJP’s tally include just one tribal seat?

Reeling from its defeat in Maharashtra, Congress thanked people for its victory in Jharkhand. But even if INDIA performed better here, it is a victory essentially of the JMM which successfully faced down the BJP’s narrative and its shrill polarising tone. The Congress’s strike rate was the lowest of the four parties in the coalition (which includes the JMM, RJD and CPI-ML-L). 

A day after the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance secured majority in the state Assembly elections 2024,  it is likely to call on Governor Santosh Gangwar to stake claim to form the government under the leadership of Hemant Soren around 4 pm on Sunday, party sources informed The Indian Express.

A day after Mahayuti's victory in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister, NCP leader Ajit Pawar have called separate meetings with newly elected MLAs of their respective parties.

The Rashtriya Janata Party (RJD) emerged as a surprise factor in the Jharkhand Assembly polls, winning four of the six seats it contested in alliance with the JMM, the Congress and the CPI-ML(L). 

RJD’s Naresh Prasad Singh won the Bishrampur seat by defeating BJP’s sitting MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi by a margin of 14,587 votes. RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav won Godda by a margin of 21,471 votes, defeating BJP’s sitting MLA Amit Kumar Mandal. In 2019, Mandal had defeated Sanjay Prasad by 4,512 votes.

Let's do a status check. This is where parties stand in terms of numbers right now:

Now, take a look at which party stands where in terms of number of seats

• BJP 132
• Shiv Sena 57
• NCP 41
• Shiv Sena (UBT) 20
• Congress 16
• NCP (SP) 10
• Samajwadi Party 2
• Jan Surajya Shakti 2
• Rashtriya Yuva Swabhimani Party 1
• Rashtriya Samaj Paksha 1
• AIMIM 1
• CPI(M) 1
• PWP 1
• Rajarshi Shahu Vikas Aghadi 1
• Independents 2

Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has said his party's defeat was "shocking" and dubbed it as the "worst-ever" loss in the state assembly polls. Talking to PTI, Chavan said, "It is difficult to say whether there was a wave or tampering."

As many as 21 women candidates have emerged winner in the elections to the 288-seat Maharashtra assembly, with only one of them from the opposition, according to the poll results.

The BJP accounted for the highest number of 14 women candidates emerging victorious, including 10 who were re-elected: Shweta Mahale (Chikli constituency), Meghana Bordikar (Jintur), Devyani Farande (Nashik Central), Seema Hiray (Nashik West), Manda Mhatre (Belapur), Manisha Chaudhari (Dahisar), Vidya Thakur (Goregaon), Madhuri Misal (Parvati), Monica Rajale (Shevgaon) and Namita Mundada (Kaij). -- PTI

Several candidates emerged victorious in the Maharashtra assembly polls by wafer thin margins, including an AIMIM nominee in Malegaon Central by 162 votes and state Congress chief Nana Patole by 208 votes from Sakoli.

All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) sitting MLA Mufti Mohammad Ismail Abdul Khalique defeated Asif Shaikh Rasheed of the Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra by 162 votes in Malegaon Central seat in Nashik district.

Patole defeated BJP's Avinash Brahmankar by 208 votes in Sakoli in Bhandara district, as per the results announced by the Election Commission on Saturday. -- PTI

The BJP-led Mahayuti not only won the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections but returned to power by handing over a deafening defeat to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) by bagging over 230 of the 288 seats. Some of the reasons behind this rout were a lack of pan-Maharashtra narrative, failure to present a collective leadership as individual leaders relied heavily on their personal vendetta and inability to offer a positive vision to voters. 

The humiliating defeat has also raised the question over the existence of the MVA in the state as Maharashtra at present stands virtually without an Opposition in the legislative house.

EMERGING the single largest party with 132 seats out of 288, there’s a strong feeling in the BJP cadre that the party should stake claim for the Chief Minister’s post with Devendra Fadnavis the obvious front runner. However, there’s a section in the party leadership that prefers continuing with incumbent CM Eknath Shinde “for the time being.” Fadnavis could be brought to the national scene, these leaders say, suggesting his name as the party president to succeed J P Nadda.

The Congress performed poorly in direct fights with the BJP in Maharashtra, winning only 10 of at least 75 seats where the two national parties faced each other. The BJP won in 65 of these seats.

What is more worrisome for the grand old party is that there were six seats among these 75 – about 10% of the total seats with direct contests – where the Congress was not even in second place. -- Vikas Pathak reports

The BJP’s performance in Assembly constituencies spread across districts covered under the Centre’s Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) slipped further in Jharkhand as compared to its performance in 2019 polls, while the party, along with its allies, managed to tighten its grip in Maharashtra.

Of the 112 districts covered under the ADP across the country, 19 are in Jharkhand (largest number for a state), while Maharashtra has only four. In Jharkhand, 66 Assembly constituencies fall in the Aspirational Districts.

As far as victory margin is concerned, the BJP was able to increase its average margin in Aspirational Districts to 39,463 votes in 2024 as compared to 27,854 in 2019. The Congress party’s average victory margin came down to 4,485 votes in 2024 from 5,190 in 2019. Read the full report here

After being reduced to single digits in the Lok Sabha elections just five months back, the BJP-led Mahayuti staged a resounding comeback winning 231 of the total 288 seats in the Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the state with the highest GDP in the country. Coming as it does on the back of a surprise win in Haryana in October, it was the scale of BJP’s victory that surprised many even within the alliance.

Bagging 133 seats of the total 148 it contested, the victory enveloped the entire state, from Vidarbha to Konkan and Marathwada, and overcame multiple challenges — from farmer distress and anger over Maratha reservation to rising prices and unemployment. Read more

The BJP, which registered its best-ever electoral performance in Maharashtra, has firmly stamped its dominance over Mumbai by winning 15 of the 17 seats it contested. Meanwhile, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, once the most dominant political force in the city, managed to maintain its foothold, securing 10 seats—half of its overall state tally.

Together, the Mahayuti coalition claimed 22 of the 36 seats in Mumbai, while the Maha Vikas Aghadi won 14. Notably, Sharad Pawar's NCP was unable to secure a single seat in the city. 

'We’re here not just to win polls, but to build nation,’ says PM Modi in his address to BJP workers at party headquarters.

PM Modi termed Congress 'parasitic' and claimed that the party is taking down its allies.

No power in the world can bring back Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, says PM Modi

PM Narendra Modi says, "After Haryana, the biggest message of this election is unity. 'Ek hain toh safe hain' has become the 'maha-mantra' of the country."

'BJP has given 'Marathi language' the status of classical language. The Congress got the opportunity for years, but it did nothing for the Marathis,'

"Third straight win for NDA, no party has such margin in 50 years," says PM Modi to BJP workers after Mahayuti win.

'It's a victory of development, good governance, defeat of deception, divisive politics,' PM Modi says in his address to BJP workers  at the party headquarters.

"We got the people's mandate in 2019 too. But Uddhav Thackeray disrespected that while pursuing his greed," says JP Nadda.

People have endorsed PM Modi's leadership and agenda of development in latest round of elections, says BJP president J P Nadda.

J P Nadda addresses BJP workers at party headquarters. "This is a historic day," he says. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaches the BJP headquarters in New Delhi. He is expected to address the party workers soon.

Hemant Soren's JMM-led alliance is set to form government in Jharkhand on Saturday for the second consecutive term, winning 52 constituencies and leading in four others in the 81-seat assembly.

The BJP-led NDA, which was confident to win after an high-octane campaign, won 21 seats and was leading in three.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge termed Maharashtra's results "unexpected". "The party is trying to understand the real reasons behind this result," he said in a post on X, while thanking the party leaders, workers, and supporters.

"We are true representatives of the ideology of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Shahuji, Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar. The fight is long and we will continue to raise the issues of the people," he added.

It was meant to be a milestone moment for the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and its young scion, Amit Thackeray, son of party chief Raj Thackeray. Instead, the Assembly elections delivered a sobering verdict---not only did Amit lose his maiden political debut in Mahim assembly constituency, but the MNS also drew a blank across the state, failing to secure even a single seat from the 128 constituencies it contested.

Amit Thackeray, despite the weight of his family name, came in third in the Mahim constituency, securing just 31,611 votes. The winner, Mahesh Sawant from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction, managed to edge out Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Sada Sarvankar, who gave a tough fight until the final rounds of counting but ultimately trailed by a narrow 1,316 votes.

-- Sweety Adimulam reports

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reacted to the landslide victory of the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition in the Maharashtra Assembly election. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), he said, “Development wins! Good governance wins! United we will soar even higher!”.

“Heartfelt gratitude to my sisters and brothers of Maharashtra, especially the youth and women of the state, for a historic mandate to the NDA. This affection and warmth is unparalleled. I assure the people that our Alliance will keep working for Maharashtra’s progress. Jai Maharashtra!” his post on X read. 

The Laadki Bahin scheme’s impact was felt across several Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra, including the Pune Cantonment.

Having initially had to face infighting in the Congress, Ramesh Bagwe, the party loyalist and former minister, lost by 10,320 votes.