It’s a landslide victory for the Mahayuti in the Maharashtra Assembly elections as the alliance is leading on 223 seats in the 288-member Assembly. The counting of votes is underway but the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance is at a distant 60 as of 2:30 pm. Going by the current numbers, none of the Opposition parties can stake claim to the post of the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly alone.

A party needs at least 10% of total seats, i.e., a minimum of 29 seats to stake the claim.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti overcame the setback of the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections as it won only 18 seats out of 48. The alliance came back with a thumping majority in the politically important state. The BJP is leading on 132 seats, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) on 50 and Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) on 37.

The Congress is leading on 17 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) on 26 and NCP (Sharad Pawar) on 13. The Others are leading on eight seats and Independents registering their worst-ever performance as they are leading on just two seats.

This was the first state election after the split in the Shiv Sena and NCP. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has credited the win to the unity among voters and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his message after results started coming in, Fadnavis said, “‘Ek hai toh safe hai‘ and ‘Modi hai toh mumkin hai‘.”

Scenes of celebrations, bursting of firecrackers and distribution of sweets were seen outside the offices of Mahayuti partners.

In a major upset for the MVA, eight-time MLA Balasaheb Thorat lost the Sangamner seat. Congress, which contested on 101 seats, is starring at its worst-ever performance. The figures are even lower than the 44 seats that it won in the 2019 Maharashtra elections, while contesting on147 seats.

The Congress could not maintain the momentum of its Lok Sabha performance when it won 13 seats out of 48 and the MVA alliance emerged victorious in 30 constituencies.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde thanked voters for the win. “I thank all my ladki bahins (dear sisters) in the state and the brothers who voted in large numbers for us. The voting trend is an endorsement of our work. Every section of society voted for us because of our development efforts. The public has noticed our work and responded through their ballots,” he said.