Maharashtra, Jharkhand Election Results 2024 Highlights: What numbers say about Mahayuti’s Maharashtra turnaround

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 Congress lost its bastion of Vav Assembly seat in the bypoll, with the result going right down to the wire. The party’s Gulabsinh Rajput lost to the BJP’s Swarupji Thakor by just over 2,400 votes, the lowest-ever margin for the seat. Before he pulled ahead, Thakor was trailing Rajput for most of the counting process.

Vav was Gujarat’s lone bypoll battle, necessitated by sitting Congress MLA Geniben Thakor’s election to the Lok Sabha earlier this year from Banaskantha (Vav is an Assembly segment within the seat). Geniben is the Congress’s lone Lok Sabha MP from the state. Thakor had lost to Geniben in the 2022 Assembly elections by 15,601 votes from Vav.

Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil thanked voters for handing a “grand victory” both in Vav and in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. “Even in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress MLA (Geniben) had got lower votes in the Vav Assembly segment,” he said. Read More

Congress candidate Mukesh Malhotra pulled off a stunning victory Saturday against sitting BJP Cabinet minister and OBC face Ram Niwas Rawat in the Chambal region’s Vijaypur bypoll.

Malhotra marched to victory with a margin of 7,364 votes against the six-time MLA Rawat, who was earlier with the Congress and switched to the BJP in April 2024, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The move had unsettled the Congress, which lost significant influence in the region during a period fraught with factionalism in the state Congress with speculation swirling around former chief minister Kamal Nath’s future move.

Rawat’s exit was attributed to his discontent over the Congress announcing Satyapal Singh Sikravar (Neetu) as its candidate for the Morena Lok Sabha seat. Rawat was adequately rewarded for his decision with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav handing him the Forest Ministry. Read More

FINALLY settling the churning that began in Maharashtra after the Assembly elections of 2019, Saturday’s results could mark the end of careers of some of the state’s most prominent faces while cementing the future of others.

Here is a look at the six with the most at stake

EMERGING the single largest party winning 133 seats out of the 288, the BJP is all set to stake claim for the chief ministerial post in Maharashtra with Devendra Fadnavis emerging as the front runner.

While the halfway mark for government formation is 145, during campaign closed-door meetings, the party leadership had indicated it should strive to cross the 100-plus mark to ensure its own CM. Indeed, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also indicated that the Assembly polls were to ensure Fadnavis’s return.

The BJP’s tally has ensured its leadership role – its partners, Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, and NCP led by Ajit Pawar, have won 57 seats and 41 seats respectively. Read More

Right from the word go, it was a given that the ruling alliance, or Mahayuti, would have an edge over the Congress, Sharad Pawar-led NCP and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena formation, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The size of the mandate, however, has undoubtedly stunned the political class. The first indication of the changing winds came in the form of voting where, for the first time in Maharashtra’s electoral history, women voters outnumbered men. Long queues of women voters coming out in droves in festive attire was a clear signal of how cash doles work. The Shinde-led government’s promise to raise the monthly payout to Rs 2,100 per month from Rs 1,500 had its desired impact. The Opposition tried to raise the bar by promising Rs 3,000 per month should it come to power. For the voters, however, it was about a bird in hand being worth two in the bush. This is about the first C — that is, cash transfer.

READ MORE FROM GIRISH KUBER'S PIECE

For the BJP, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Jharkhand election in-charge, led a campaign that focused on reiterating that Bangladeshi infiltrators were changing the demography of the state, particularly affecting tribals. The results indicated this strategy, which the party’s central leadership also echoed during rallies in the state, did not pay dividends.

In a social media post, Sarma wrote, “The loss in Jharkhand is deeply painful for me personally, even though we secured victory in all five by-elections in Assam. I have witnessed the unwavering dedication and relentless efforts of our karyakartas in Jharkhand, who gave their all in this election. We fought with a vision to protect the state from infiltration and to lead it on the path of development, fulfilling the aspirations of students and youth. However, we must humbly accept the mandate of the people, for that is the true essence of democracy. In these challenging times, we will stand firmly with our Karyakartas, offering them unwavering support and solidarity.”

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.

The Mahim contest was particularly dramatic. Sarvankar was initially pressured to withdraw in favor of Amit Thackeray after the BJP offered tacit support to the MNS candidate. However, Raj Thackeray’s refusal to engage with Sarvankar, though his son visited Thackeray's residence, led to a fractured equation, and Sarvankar decided to stay in the race.

Unlike his cousin Aaditya Thackeray, who has been a prominent and dynamic face of the Shiv Sena, Amit Thackeray’s foray into active politics lacked the same resonance. While he campaigned extensively with his wife and family, he failed to connect with voters meaningfully or capitalize on the legacy of his father.

The Mahim loss wasn’t the only blow for the MNS. Prominent candidates from the party, including Avinash Jadhav in Thane and incumbent Kalyan rural legislator Pramod Patil, suffered humiliating defeats. 

The decline in Congress’s vote share and gain in NCP (SP)’s vote share is perhaps the reason behind the spectacular result of Mahayuti. Congress during the Loksabha elections had managed to get support from almost all caste and religious groups. However, this support has seem to have been eroded during the last few months. The much talked about Maratha versus OBC consolidation has also did not happen in the state. Overall most of the Congress and other MVA partners votes have been transferred to Mahayuti especially the NCP(AP) and the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde).

In the run-up to the Maharashtra polls, the Mahayuti had promised to increase the monthly assistance to women under the Ladki Bahin Yojana from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,100 and induct 25,000 women police personnel, while the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi has promised women Rs 3,000 a month under the Mahalakshmi scheme and free transportation in government buses.

While Maharashtra recorded a nearly five percentage point jump in overall voter turnout this Assembly election, it is the women who have contributed to this surge, data from the Election Commission of India has revealed. The women voter turnout has risen from 59.26 per cent in the 2019 elections to 65.21 per cent this year, an increase of 5.95 percentage points.

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) made its presence felt in its debut, potentially denting the prospects of the RJD in two seats despite its other two candidates forfeiting deposits.

The NDA also managed to pocket Tarari, seen to be a stronghold of the CPI (ML)L in recent times, with the BJP’s Vishal Prashant, the son of former Tarari MLA defeating the Left party’s Raju Yadav by over 10,000 votes. Here too, the JSP candidate Kiran Singh forfeited her deposit and emerged runner-up with 5,592 votes.

The National People’s Party’s Mehtab Chandee Sangma is set to win the Gambegre assembly seat with a margin of 4594 votes ahead of her nearest competitor Trinamool Congress’ Sadhiarani Sangma. Mehtab Chandee is Meghalaya Chief Minister and NPP National President Conrad Sangma’s wife and made her political debut with this bypoll. Conrad himself also campaigned extensively in this seat. Her victory in this seat is a boost to the political fortunes of the NPP and the Sangma family which had particularly suffered a massive setback in this year’s Lok Sabha polls when former Union Minister of State and Conrad’s sister Agatha Sangma lost the Tura seat. Apart from a two year gap between 1989 and 1991, the Tura seat has been held by members of the family – Agatha, Conrad and their father P.A. Sangma - since 1977.

The Laadki Bahin scheme's impact was felt across several assembly constituencies in Maharashtra. Despite initially dealing with infighting in the Congress, Ramesh Bagwe, the party loyalist and former minister, lost by 10,320 votes. BJP's Sunil Kamble of the Mahayuti was re-elected from the Pune Cantonment Assembly constituency. He polled 76,032 votes while Bagwe got 65,712 votes.

Kamble, who credited his win to the Laadki Bahin scheme pointed out that their efforts in working for the people paid off. "In the last five years we have taken up various development projects and worked towards improving infrastructure,” Kamble said.

He pointed out that there was no Congress wave. "Infact I am grateful to the people for their invaluable vote and being given an opportunity for the second time," he said.

Speaking at the FCI counting centre Sundaay, Kamble also attributed his win to the tremendous efforts taken by the party workers. "They have effectively  tackled the "opponent's dadagiri," he said.

With the BJP-led Mahayuti heading for a landslide victory in Maharashtra, and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena set to deal a humiliating blow to Uddhav Thackeray’s faction, senior BJP leader and state minister Chandrakant Patil said the latter was welcome to return to the Mahayuti fold.

''The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance was a natural alliance. But the Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP weaned the Sena away from us… If Uddhav Thackeray wants to join hands with us, we will welcome him,'' Patil told ABP Majha, a Maratha news channel in Pune. Patil was himself leading in Kothrud seat of Pune.

Asked about the “offer” to Uddhav, BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhaye said: ''Any decision regarding this will be taken by the central leadership of our party… Anyone on their own wants to join hands with us, we cannot say no. But any such big decision will be taken by the central leadership.''

With a strong Shinde Sena finish likely, putting the Ajit Pawar-led NCP definitely in the third position, the latter tried to squash any rumours regarding its plans.

NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari said, ''Whatever happens, the BJP will not leave the NCP and the NCP is not leaving the BJP.''

- Manoj More

With counting underway in Maharashtra, the Mahayuti is headed for a landslide victory in what is a resounding reversal of its recent setback in the Lok Sabha polls, in which it clinched just 17 of the state’s 48 parliamentary seats. Though counting is yet to be completed, the ruling alliance sits poised to return to power with a considerable mandate. Based on recent leads, it looks forward to winning in 230 seats in the 288-member Assembly – having flipped at least 105 Assembly segments it had lost to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidates just months ago in the Lok Sabha polls.

--Analysis by Anjishnu Das

It is turning out to be an exceptional performance for the Mahayuti in Maharashtra, with the BJP leading in 116 seats, the Shiv Sena in 56, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 35. If this trend holds and the Mahayyuti storms back to power, the big question will be: who will be the CM?

Depending on how well the BJP does, Devendra Fadanvis may have a stronger claim this time around though the BJP leadership is learnt to have assured Eknath Shinde that he would retain the chair if his party won over 40 seats, something that is it is on course to do.

— Sattwick Barman writes

The early trends show that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leads in all four Assembly constituencies in Punjab where bypolls were held. These seats are Gidderbaha, Barnala, Chabbewal, and Dera Baba Nanak. The party, which appointed a new state president on Friday, will take heart from these early trends after the disappointment of the

Lok Sabha elections in which it won only three seats.

In bypolls, the ruling parties in the state have predominantly found favour in the last 30 years. As many as 18 of the 23 bypolls held since 1995 were won by ruling parties, with the Opposition parties winning only five.

— Raakhi Jagga reports

After the Mahayuti alliance looked on course to retain power by winning more than 200 seats in Maharashtra Assembly election results, Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis has said the people have once again reposed their trust in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had given a clarion call of “ek hain to safe hain (united we are safe)” .

According to the latest updates from the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party was leading in 235 seats. The BJP itself was poised for a historic victory, having secured six seats and holding a lead in 129 seats so far.

In between the Lok Sabha election held in April and the Vidhan Sabha election held in November, the Congress saw its vote share decrease by over 6 per cent. The biggest gains in terms of vote share was made by NCP (Ajit Pawar) who saw its vote share increase from 3.60 per cent in Loksabha to a whooping 10.56 per cent in the state assembly polls. BJP also saw a slight decrease in its vote share with NCP (SP) managing to keep its vote share almost intact.

During the Lok Sabha elections, Congress had won 13 seats and cornered 16.92 per cent of the total votes. As of 1 pm on Saturday, the vote share of the party has gone down to 10.88 per cent with the party winning just 19 seats. BJP on its part has won or were leading in 127 seats with a vote share of 25.32 per cent. BJP had won 9 seats with a vote share of 26.18 per cent. The NCP led by Sharad Pawar had the best strike rate during the Loksabha election winning 8 of the 10 seats it contested with a vote share of 10.27 per cent. For the state assembly , the party won 13 seats, with a vote percentage of 11.67 per cent. Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) which had won 7 Loksabha seats with a vote share of 12.95 per cent is poised to make history by winning 54 seats with a vote share of 12.50 per cent vote share. Shiv Sena (UBT) had won 9 Loksabha seats with a vote share of 16.72 per cent has won 12 seats with a vote share of 10.74 per cent.

While in ruling alliance, the BJP looks all set to become a single largest party by huge margin, in opposition MVA all three parties have almost equal number of seats

While the Samajwadi Party did not get the expected results in UP and ended up losing some of its sitting seats as well, it is the loss of Kundarki, which has been won by minority candidates of either the party or BSP for the past 28 years by huge margins, would have come as the biggest setback to the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.

SP candidate and three-term MLA Mohd Rizwan lost from the seat to Ramveer Singh of the BJP, who is believed to have also secured some of the minority vote due to his personal equation on the ground.

During a recent interview with The Indian Express, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren appeared relaxed and, when asked about his party JMM’s performance, said the BJP will bite the dust not only in rural but also in urban areas.

His prediction seems to be coming true as the INDIA bloc led in 55 seats out of total 81 at 2.45 pm, with the NDA trailing at 26. The JMM alone led in 33 seats.

With 200-plus rallies, the husband-wife duo of Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren led the JMM campaign, asking for votes in favour of their welfare schemes: Maiyya Samman Yojna, a direct benefit transfer of Rs 1,000 to all underprivileged women between 18-50 years of age; waiver of power dues of 40 lakh families to the tune of Rs 3,500 crore; and universalisation of pension of Rs 1,000 to 40 lakh people in Jharkhand. Read more

Old faces who may have “lost acceptance” and the failure of issues such as alleged infiltration to gain traction among Adivasis appear to have let down the BJP’s attempt to recapture power in Jharkhand on Saturday.

The trends as of 2 pm showed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led INDIA bloc heading towards a comfortable majority in the 81-member Assembly. The JMM led in 33 constituencies while the Congress was ahead in 16, with the BJP leading in 22 constituencies, as of 2.30 pm. INDIA allies Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and CPI(ML)(L) won five and two seats respectively.

According to BJP leaders, the Hemant Soren government’s Maiyya Samman Yojana that provides Rs 1,000 to underprivileged women clicked in favour of the ruling alliance and a significant turnout of women voters indicated that.

-- Lalmani Verma reports

"Cash, caste, communalism and crops are the four Cs that Maharashtra’s fiercely-fought Assembly election revolved around. And, ultimately, the first three Cs seem to have outsmarted the burning issue of falling crop prices in Maharashtra’s rural areas. The state’s hurriedly-launched Ladki Bahin Yojana, a cut-and-paste of Madhya Pradesh’s successful Ladli Behna scheme ensured cash in the hands of the state’s poor women while BJP’s social engineering effort, in organising OBCs to counter the Maratha anger, with a dash of communalism seen in slogans like “Batenge To Katenge”, proved to be the perfect blend of the winning concoction for the BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP."

Read Girish Kuber's opinion here.

THE BJP’S big victory in Maharashtra, on the back of a surprise win in Haryana, indicates a tactical shift by the party since the Lok Sabha election setback, in moving the focus from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the local leadership and issues, with the organisation and schemes for women doing the heavy lifting.

One crucial factor was the BJP firmly turning to the RSS for help from its vast network on the ground, closing the gap between the two seen in the Lok Sabha polls. The RSS virtually took over the campaigning at the grassroots in Maharashtra, spreading the word as the BJP stitched together a rainbow coalition encompassing different sections to overcome the anti-Maratha sentiment seen as against the party.

“The focus was on Devendra Fadnavis, our alliance partners and local issues in Maharashtra,” a BJP national office-bearer said, adding that a similarly focused strategy may have worked better in Jharkhand, where the campaign highlighted more of Modi, did not have a strong face against Hemant Soren, and raised issues that aligned more with its larger Hindutva campaign than resonating with the ground.

-- Liz Mathew reports

For election strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP), it has been a tough start in electoral politics.

In the bypolls for four Assembly seats in Bihar, the JSP’s best performance was in Imamganj where its candidate Jitendra Paswan finished third behind winner Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) of Jitan Ram Manjhi by a little more than 16,000 votes. The RJD came second.

It finished third in Tarari too, with its candidate Kiran Singh losing her deposit. She finished 73,133 votes behind winner Vishal Prashant of the BJP. In Belaganj, where the party had some hopes of making an impact, it was trailing the JD(U) by more than 55,000 votes with 12 out of 15 rounds of counting over. In Ramgarh, the party finished fourth, with its candidate there too losing his deposit.

— Santosh Singh reports

The man of the day in the BJP’s big Maharashtra win, Devendra Fadnavis Saturday hailed the performance of the ruling Mahayuti in the Assembly polls and credited it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the latter's “Ek hain toh safe hain” slogan.

Leading from Nagpur South West Assembly seat by 19,437 votes at 1 pm, Fadnavis posted on X, "Ek Hain toh Safe Hain', 'Modi hai to Mumkin hai'.

Has ‘ek hain toh safe hain’ pitch worked for BJP?

The “Ek hain toh safe hain” slogan was a staple of all speeches of Modi during the campaign, with the Opposition objecting to it as an indirect communal appeal to Hindus to vote as one. The PM came up with the slogan after even BJP ally NCP objected to the use of “Batenge toh katenge” slogan by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during the campaign. Apart from its alleged communal overtones, both slogans were seen as a counter to the Congress campaign for a caste census.

The PM has been using this slogan since in his first poll rally in Maharashtra on November 8. The PM’s pitch signalled that in the face of the Congress’s attacks that it posed a threat to the Constitution and reservation, the BJP was sticking to its project of welding the social justice politics of “Mandal” with “Kamandal” that stands for the politics of constructing a Hindu identity across upper castes, OBCs, SCs, and STs.

In line with this strategy, the BJP has also accused the Opposition party of siding with conservative Muslim elements to divert the OBC, SC, and ST quota pie to the minority community.

-- Express News Service

In Karnataka, the Congress has established leads in three seats where bypolls were held on November 13.

In Channapatna seat Congress's C P Yogeshwar established a firm lead over Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the NDA Union Minister and former CM H D Kumaraswamy's son and seemed set to snatch the seat from the JDS. The seat fell vacant after Kumaraswamy resigned to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress also established a surprise lead in the Shiggaon seat where former CM Basavaraj Bommai's son Bharat Bommai was trailing the Congress candidate Yasir Pathan. The Shiggaon poll is expected to be a close affair on account of a large number of Muslim and Lingayat voters in region. If Congress wins, it'll be seen as a boost for CM Siddaramaiah and DCM D K Shivakumar and the populist policies of the Congress government such as the five guarantees. -- Johnson TA reports

With the Mahayuti heading for a landslide in Maharashtra, 83-year-old NCP(SP) Sharad Pawar, who saw his party win 8 of the 10 seats it contested barely five months ago, has failed to weave his magic as his party sits at the bottom of the list of the six major players in the state.

According to latest EC trends, the NCP(SP) is leading only in 18 of the 87 seats it contested while rival Ajit Pawar is set to win double the number of seats.

The senior Pawar’s strategy to rope in disgruntled leaders ahead of the Assembly polls has not seemed to work so has his strategy of “targeting” leaders who jumped ship with Ajit during the 2023 rebellion. – Ajay Jadhav reports

Apart from Kundarki, where the BJP is leading and the Samajwadi Party trailing, the eight Assembly seats where bypoll results are coming in Uttar Pradesh seem to be voting for the same party as they did in the 2022 Assembly polls.

The trends at noon showed the BJP’s Ramveer Singh leading in the Muslim-dominated Kundarki by over 55,000 votes, with the SP's Mohammad Rizwan behind. The SP's Zia-ur-Rehman had won the seat in 2022, but vacated it after getting elected to the Lok Sabha.

With the BJP suffering a fatal collapse in UP in the Lok Sabha elections, directly contributing to its slide to below majority at the Centre, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had staked personal prestige in the UP bypolls.

-- Lalmani Verma reports

Even as agricultural distress in terms of lower than Minimum Support Price (MSP) rates of cotton and soyabean continued unabated, the Mahayuti managed to sweep the Vidarbha area of Maharashtra. Senior Congress leaders like Vijay Waddetiwar and others were trailing as BJP was headed to capture the cotton belt once again.

Farm activist Vijay Jawandhiya, while speaking to The Indian Express said the results speak of the resounding success of the Majhi Mukhya Mantri Ladki Behin Yogna which saw the state government give Rs 1,500/- into the bank accounts of the eligible women in the state. “Money after all is money - people saw the swiftness with which the money was deposited in the bank accounts. This was one of the main reasons why people decided to vote for Mahayuti just months after voting for MVA in the Loksabha elections,” he said.

Another reason which helped the Mahayuti was the manner in which rebellions was handled and differences ironed out in the party. Unlike this, the MVA often was a divided house in Vidarbha and strong independents dented the chances of the official candidates.

-- PARTHA SARATHI BISWAS reports

After initial rounds of counting in the Bihar Assembly bypolls, Belaganj and Ramgarh are slowly slipping away from the RJD. In another setback, RJD’s ally in the INDIA bloc, the CPI-ML, also may not be able to retain Tarari seat.

After the sixth round of counting, the BJP's Awhok Singh has got 35, 688 votes, taking a marginal lead over the BSP's Satish Yadav who polled 35,320 votes. RJD candidate Ajit Singh, the son of party state president Jagdanand Singh and brother of Buxar RJD MP Sudhakar Singh, is trailing with 21292 votes.

Belaganj was earlier represented by the RJD's Surendra Prasad Yadav who went on to be elected in the Lok Sabha polls from Jehanabad. This was one of the four Bihar bypolls seats where RJD chief Lalu Prasad had campaigned.

Despite the backing, the JD (U)'s Manorama Devi has been leading with 52,339 votes over the RJD's Vishwanath Kumar Singh.

The CPI-ML had won Tarari in the 2020 Assembly polls. As per trends, the BJP’s Vishal Prashant is leading over the CPI-ML's Raju Yadav by about 20,000 votes.

-- Santosh Singh reports

Trends show the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde leading in at least 38 out of the 51 seats it is contesting against the rival Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT).

Some seats where the Sena (UBT) had a lead included Worli, from where Aaditya Thackeray is contesting against Shiv Sena's Milind Deora, Mahesh Sawant in Mahim seat, Ajay Chaudhari in Sewri and Bhaskar Jadhav in Guhagar. However, after seven rounds, the lead of Aaditya, the UBT scion, was merely a thousand-plus votes.

Some of the prominents candidates of the Shinde Sena were leading included Eknath Shinde in Kopri Pachpakhadi, Deepak Kesarkar in Sawantwadi, Uday Samant in Ratnagiri, Nilesh Rane in Kudal and Abdul Sattar in Sillod. Sattar is the Shinde Sena’s only Muslim MLA in the outgoing Assembly.

Of the 51 seats in which the two Senas took on each other, 19 are in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (12 in Mumbai), 8 in Marathwada, 8 in prestigious Konkan ,6 in Vidarbha, 5 in North Maharashtra and 4 in Western Maharashtra. Overall too, the Shinde Sena far outled the Sena (UBT) at 56 seats to 19 at 11.45 am.

-- Vallabh Ozarkar reports

While the BJP mounted an aggressive campaign in Jharkhand tribal areas alleging that “infiltrators” were changing the state’s demographics and usurping land and jobs, and claiming “love jihad” and “land jihad”, the Scheduled Tribe-reserved seats appear to be staying with the INDIA bloc.

Of the 28 ST-reserved seats in Jharkhand, the JMM-Congress alliance was leading in 23 at 11.30 am. The BJP was ahead in only five. The BJP had also lost all the tribal seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

Tribal voters make up around 27% of the state population. The BJP’s gambit of wooing JMM No.2 and senior tribal leader Champai Soren to its side too appears to have not worked.

-- Lalmani Verma reports

As the Mahayuti headed for a landslide victory in Maharashtra Saturday, with the BJP seat to increase its tally from 105 in 2019 to 125 now, BJP spokesperson Pravin Darekar said Devendra Fadnavis may be the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

''This result has taken us by surprise. We knew we would win, but never expected this kind of an overwhelming result. I think Devendra Fadnavis will be the CM,'' Darekar told reporters in Mumbai.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Sheetal Mhatare said Mahyuti leaders will decide who will be CM. ''We think Eknath Shinde should remain the CM,'' he said.

Another BJP spokesperson, Keshav Upadhaye, said,.''Election results are coming in. The Mahayuti is clearly leading. This vote is for development. If BJP workers think Fadnavis should be the CM, there is nothing wrong in it… Mahayuti leaders will finally take the decision.''

The CM of the BJP-Shiv Sena government in 2014-2019, Fadnavis had to be satisfied with the Deputy CM post after the BJP returned to power with the support of the Eknath Shinde faction. --- Manoj More reports

As per the Election Commission's latest numbers, the Mahayuti alliance has crossed the crucial 145-seat majority mark in leads in Maharashtra. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leads the alliance with 90 seats, followed by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction securing 45 seats. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction, aligned with the alliance, has managed to win 32 seats.

In what was a make-or-break election for him, Ajit Pawar seems to be on course to have the last laugh. Based on the figures available on the ECI website, his Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has the lead in 35 of the 53 seats it contested while his uncle Sharad Pawar's NCP(SP) leads in only 13. In Baramati, which Ajit has not lost since 1991, he is ahead of his nephew Yugendra by 21,000 votes after five rounds.

In both Marathawada and Vidharbha, the Mahayuti has established good leads in most of the seats that had seen farmers express discontent over the low prices of soyabean.

Grown over 50 lakh hectares, Mahayuti had established leads over 60 per cent of the seats. In Marathwada, where the Maratha reservation movement led by Manoj Jarange Patil had got much traction, the Mahayuti has managed to buckle the trend and gain in almost all the seats.

As per the ECI’s website even Rajesh Tope, the former minister of the health and NCP (SP) candidate was trailing behind his Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) candidate Udhan Hikmat Baliram. -- Partha Sarathi Biswas reports

Congress candidate Priyanka Gandhi is poised for a big win in her maiden electoral battle from Kerala’s Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, early trends suggest.

When 3,33,298 votes were counted till 10.40 am on Saturday, Priyanka had bagged 64.12 percent of the votes, while her rivals Sathyan Mokeri of LDF and Navy Haridas of BJP got 21.96 per cent and 12.34 per cent, respectively. The total polled votes in the constituency, which went to the by-election on November 13, were 9,52,543.

Congress had little to worry about as far as the bypoll outcome was concerned, and the focus of the campaign was to ensure the maximum margin for the high-profile candidate. Senior leaders had been working at the grassroots level, targeting a five lakh-plus majority for Priyanka, whose contest had brought the landslide-hit region to national limelight. -- Shaju Philip reports

The Congress and the Mahayuti may be sinking in Maharashtra but in Jharkhand the party is performing better than expected, better than even what some of its allies may have expected. Towards the end of the elections, there was a worry in the INDIA camp if the Congress had been given too many seats, Lalmani Verma had reported.

JMM and RJD leaders expressed worry about the Congress's weak campaign, last-minute organisational changes, and top leaders not campaigning much there.

But the early trends show that the Congress is leading in 13 of the 30 seats it contested, not far behind the 16 seats it won in 2019.

— Express News Service

The early trends from Assembly bypolls in Rajasthan indicate a setback for veteran politicians Hanuman Beniwal, who is the chief of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), Kirodi Lal Meena of BJP, as well as Ola (Jhunjhunu) and Khan (Ramgarh) families of Congress.

Hanuman Beniwal had fielded his wife Kanika Beniwal from the home turf for Khinwsar. However, with one-fourth of counting done, she was trailing BJP’s Rewant Ram Danga by 5,000 votes.

For cabinet minister Kirodi Lal, who has been a constant headache to the Bhajan Lal Sharma government and the party, much is on the line after the party fielded his brother Jagmohan from Dausa. However, Congress’s Deen Dayal had a small lead of 1660 votes after the 5/18 rounds of counting.

Going into the polls, Congress party leaders were considering Jhunjhunu and Ramgarh as their strong seats. In Jhunjhunu, Congress candidate Amit Ola’s father Brijendra Ola won the Assembly seat for four consecutive terms between 2008 and 2023, before getting elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year; Amit Ola is currently in third position.

In Ramgarh, the Congress was hoping to gain from sympathy votes following the demise of sitting MLA Zubair Khan - who held the seat for four terms, while his wife was MLA for one. However, their son Aryaan Zubair is trailing BJP’s Sukhavant Singh by just over 1100 votes after 5/22 rounds of counting. -- Hamza Khan reports

Initial trends indicate a disappointing performance for the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the 2024 Assembly elections. The results reflect a combination of factors, including internal disunity and a significant delay in finalizing seat-sharing arrangements, with key leaders such as Nana Patole from the Congress and Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena (UBT) engaged in public spats.

With the MVA trailing far behind, Sanjay Raut of the Sena (UBT) indicated that the alliance was reconciled to a loss, saying the party didn’t accept “this mandate” and that there seemed to be some “conspiracy”.

The Mahayuti coalition went into the contest having effectively consolidated its strengths, and banking on "Ladki Bahin Scheme" as well as telling Hindus to “stay together” as a counter to INDIA’s “danger to Constitution” threat that worked in the Lok Sabha polls.

The MVA also appears to have failed to connect with rural and tribal voters, who felt neglected due to a lack of adequate development programmes and direct engagement. Ultimately, the MVA's internal strife, failure to counter the BJP’s narrative, and inability to engage effectively with the electorate were pivotal in its electoral setback.

-- Zeeshan Shaikh reports

In Jharkhand, the INDIA bloc is leading in 51 seats, with the JMM itself sprinting ahead in 31 seats. The Congress has got a lead in 12 seats, the CPI-ML in 2, and the RJD in six.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has almost had a full term in power, barring a five-month tenure in jail in a money-laundering case — meaning that he missed being only the second CM in the state to have achieved the feat after Raghubar Das of the BJP.

In the election campaign, Soren banked on his government’s popular schemes, such as Rs 1,000 pension schemes, the doorstep delivery of services, and recently the Maiya Samman Yojana for women from underprivileged communities between 18 and 50 years, to return to power. And looking at the numbers — his strategy seemed to have paid off.

— Abhishek Angad reports

In Western Maharashtra that used to be a bastion of the Congress-NCP combine, the Mahayuti pulled ahead of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, leading in 41 seats to its 11.

The BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP candidates were heading in mosts seats in districts like Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Pune and Solapur

Among the big faces in the contest here is former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who alleged that the BJP had distributed money in his constituency. He was leading by a thin margin at 10.44 am.

Till the 2009 Assembly polls, the Congress and united NCP dominated the sugar belt of Western Maharashtra in terms of number of seats and the vote share. However, since 2014, the BJP has started improving its tally in the region even though it could not secure more seats than the Congress-NCP combined. ENS

— Express News Service

The election results in the Baramati constituency have reaffirmed Ajit Pawar's political dominance, as the entire region was adorned with his images and echoed with the slogan, "Ek Vaada Ajit Dada."

As of the fourth round, Ajit Pawar has secured 8,287 votes, leading by 4,074 votes against Yugendra Pawar, who has garnered 4,213 votes. With a total lead of 15,248 votes, Pawar continues to maintain a stronghold in the constituency. -- Shubham Tigga reports

The R G Kar rape-murder incident and corruption issues appear to have had no significant impact on the ruling Trinamool Congress’s fortunes in the Bengal by-elections as the party took lead in all the six seats.

TMC candidates led from the beginning of the counting, leaving the BJP and other Opposition parties behind. The BJP was second-placed in all but one seat at 10.30 am.

Partha Bhowmik, the TMC Lok Sabha MP from Barrackpur, said: “People are with Mamata Banerjee. The results so far show that people have understood how the Opposition tried to malign the name of Mamata Banerjee in the R G Kar episode.”

Of the six seats, Madarihat and Sitai are in North Bengal and the others – Taldangra, Medinipur, Haroa and Naihati – are in South Bengal. By-elections were held after MLAs of these seats contested the Lok Sabha elections and won. In the 2021 Assembly elections, of these six seats, one was won by the BJP and the rest five by the TMC.

— Ravik Bhattacharya reports

It is turning out to be an exceptional performance for the Mahayuti in Maharashtra, with the BJP leading in 116 seats, the Shiv Sena in 56, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 35.

If this trend holds and the Mahayyuti storms back to power, the big question will be: who will be the CM?

Depending on how well the BJP does, Devendra Fadanvis may have a stronger claim this time around though the BJP leadership is learnt to have assured Eknath Shinde that he would retain the chair if his party won over 40 seats, something that is it is on course to do.

Who will be CM if Mahayuti wins? Reading the signals as BJP keeps it an open question

— Sattwick Barman reports

"This is not a mandate by the people. This is a mandate managed by the Adani and its gang," says Sanjay Raut.

The early trends show that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leads in all four Assembly constituencies in Punjab where bypolls were held. These seats are Gidderbaha, Barnala, Chabbewal, and Dera Baba Nanak. The party, which appointed a new state president on Friday, will take heart from these early trends after the disappointment of the Lok Sabha elections in which it won only three seats.

In bypolls, the ruling parties in the state have predominantly found favour in the last 30 years. As many as 18 of the 23 bypolls held since 1995 were won by ruling parties, with the Opposition parties winning only five. — Raakhi Jagga reports

As of 10:00 pm, the Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha is leading in the Jugsalai seat where party candidate Binod Swansi is contesting.

The JKLM is led by 29-year-old rising OBC Kudmi leader a.k.a Tiger Jairam Mahato. Jairam is a Kudmi Mahato, one of three prominent Mahato groups of Jharkhand, the others being Koeri and Teli.

The Kudmi Mahatas (Mahatos) comprise around 15% of the population, compared to say the tribals who make up 26-27%. However, sources in the know of SECC data claimed their population in Jharkhand to be around 8%.

However, since he emerged on the state’s political scene earlier this year, Jairam has cut across divides as, simply, “Jharkhand ka ladka (Jharkhand’s own son)”. One big contributor to his popularity are his videos on social media, where he has a huge following. In the videos, he talks about political awareness, “wealth amassed by political leaders”, the poverty of the people, and how “outsiders get government jobs in Jharkhand”. -- Abhishek Angad reports

Mahayuti leads in all regions of Maharashtra despite talks of agrarian crisis. The BJP is also doing exceedingly well in Sharad Pawar bastion of western Maharashtra as well as per the leads. -- Alok Deshpande reports

Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) candidates Aditya Golay and Satish Chandra Rai have been elected unopposed in the bypolls to Soreng-Chakung and Namchi-Singhithang assembly constituencies, officials say.

Golay was the only candidate in the fray for the bypolls to Soreng-Chakung seat after SDF's Probin Hang Subba withdrew his nomination.

Rai was elected unopposed from Namchi-Singhithang assembly constituency as he was the sole candidate in the fray, following the withdrawal of candidature by SDF nominee Daniel Rai. -- PTI

As per early trends, the RG Kar incident and corruption issues, which the BJP banked during their campaign, seem to have little effect in Bengal's six seats. The TMC has taken lead in all sex assembly seats. -- Ravik Bhattacharya reports

The contest in Baramati has everyone’s attention. Here, deputy chief minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawar is battling it out with the NCP (SP)’s Yugendar Pawar — his nephew. While this is Ajit Pawar’s 8th Assembly contest it is Yugendra’s first.

Since 1967, the Pawar family has never lost the Baramati seat, both in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. NCP veteran Sharad Pawar has himself won Baramati Assembly and Lok Sabha seats a total of 14 times. But after the split in NCP, the battle has become a matter of prestige for Ajit and Pawar Senior.

As per current trends, Ajit Pawar is leading by 9,000 votes.

Here is a ground report from Baramati on Yugendra Pawar’s campaign.

-- Sunanda Mehta reports

For NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, whose parties saw splits in 2023 and 2022, respectively, the outcome is likely to make or break their immediate political future. The BJP had dealt the biggest blow to the Opposition by engineering the splits, and bringing down the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.

A victory in the state could re-energise the Opposition camp with many of its leaders believing that it could slow down the BJP’s “predatory politics”.

BJP's performance in Marathawada assumes significance as the agitation seeking OBC status for the Maratha community led by Manoj Jarange-Patil adversely impacted the Mahayuti candidates in the Lok Sabha polls, especially in Marathwada. It led to the consolidation of Maratha votes along with Muslim and Dalit votes.

While Jarange-Patil decided not to field his candidates in the Assembly polls, his call was mainly against those from the BJP. The Mahayuti believes this led to the counter consolidation of OBCs in its favour.

In Wayanad, Priyanka Gandhi’s lead has crossed 60,000 votes. LDF candidate Sathyan Mokeri and BJP’ Navy Haridas are far behind one and a half into counting of votes.

In ruling alliance, the BJP is looking to become a single largest party by huge margin. In the MVA, all three parties have leads on almost equal number of seats.

As per early trends, the BJP is faring well in both the states. In Maharashtra, the Mahayuti is ahead in over 160 seats, while MVA's prospects look good on 83 seats. In Jharkhand, early leads show BJP-led NDA ahead in 39 seats, INDIA bloc in 31.

As per the early trends, despite talks of anti-incumbency, the ruling Mahayuti is doing well in Marathwada region of Maharashtra.

In Maharashtra, the MVA and Mahayuti both are eyeing independent and rebel candidates, should their need arise to cross the halfway mark in the 288-member House.

The Assembly elections this time saw an increase of over four per cent in voter turnout, its highest since 1995. Both the ruling and Opposition alliances have cited this as a sign of victory. Other than the rise in the voter turnout, the increase in the number of women voters is also set to play a key role in the outcome of a contest that is widely believed to have been a close one

Here are the five things to watch out for.

Will the BJP be able to snatch one more state from the Opposition or will it face a blow after running a polarising campaign built around the rhetoric of alleged illegal immigration?

The BJP has alleged that the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led government has engaged in appeasement politics aimed at the Muslim community while tribal communities have suffered. Moreover, a core part of the BJP’s message was its claim that 'Bangladeshi infiltration poses a “threat” to Jharkhand’s identity and demographics. The ruling JMM has countered this by saying that Centre and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which it holds responsible for protecting the border regions and preventing infiltration, if at all.

Read the full report here

The first trends in postal ballot counts shows that Yugendra Pawar the NCP (SP) candidate has taken a lead in Baramati. He is fighting against his uncle deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. This would be Yugendra’s first electoral battle. Ajit Pawar has been representing Baramati for the last 7 terms.

Today is also key for the Congress as well as many parties of the INDIA bloc, who is looking to propel the 'BJP is on a decline' narrative. A losses in both states, especially in Maharashtra, will put a bigger question mark on the INDIA bloc's unity. Since the Lok Sabha results, leaders of the INDIA bloc have not been seen together — even for perfunctory photo ops — despite the alliance existing on paper.

For the BJP, the results will determine how the party fares in the battle of perception after its underwhelming performance in the Lok Sabha elections. On the other hand, a loss in both states, or at least in Maharashtra, will give way to the perception that Lok Sabha results were a reflection of a trend that is, by and large, continuing -- a conclusion that may have far-reaching consequences for the party.

Counting of votes has kicked off in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Postal ballots will be counted first.

Hi! Good morning. Stick around as we decode the Jharkhand and Maharashtra election results as they trickle in.