Votes in Maharashtra and Jharkhand to be counted today
Counting of votes in the Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections will begin at 8 am. It's the Mahayuti vs the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra, while JMM and allies fight the NDA in Jharkhand.
Counting of votes in bypolls in several states will also begin at 8 am.
In the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the Congress contested 102 seats, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) 96 seats, and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) 86 seats. Two seats were contested by Samajwadi Party and two seats by smaller MVA allies.
In Mahayuti, the BJP contested the largest number of seats at 148, followed by the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at 80, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at 52. Mahayuti candidates are contesting in six more seats.
The results today will have huge implications for all the parties, particularly NCP and Shiv Sena. This was the first election after splits in the NCP and the Shiv Sena. In the 2019 elections, BJP won 105 seats, the undivided Shiv Sena 56, undivided NCP 54, Congress 44, independents 13 and others 16 seats.
In Jharkhand, while the ruling JMM-led alliance is banking on its work and promises, the NDA’s campaign was more polarised.
Votes in bypolls will also be counted today. In Kerala's Wayanad, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is contesting the Lok Sabha byelection on the same seat that his brother Rahul Gandhi used to represent before he won this time from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli.
In Uttar Pradesh, votes will be counted in the by-polls in nine assembly seats. Bypolls were also held on seven assembly seats in Rajasthan. In Madhya Pradesh, a by-election was held in Budhni and Vijaypur. In Kerala, a by-election was held in Chelakkara and Palakkad.
