BJP-Shiv Sena retains Maharashtra amid Sharad Pawar's resurgence, Haryana goes for hung assembly

As the results came out on Thursday, the BJP and Shiv Sena alliance is leading in 155 seats with 97 of them coming from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis-led saffron party.

Improving its tally to 57, the Shiv Sena has, however, dropped a hint at pushing its young leader Aaditya Thackeray, the grandson of Bal Thackeray, to become the Chief Minister of the western state.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has said the next Chief Minister will be decided on the basis of a pre-determined formula.

Thackeray said, "The Maharashtra Chief Minister will be chosen as per the pre-determined formula. We will sit with the BJP for that."

Aaditya, the first from the Thackeray family to contest an election, won from Worli constituency by over 67,000 votes.

Fadnavis, who is eyeing a second straight term as the Chief Minister, said, "I assure all that the formula will be followed," fuelling fresh speculations over who would assume the throne.

Apart from Shiv Sena, Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) came out with a surprise going head-to-head with the Sena. However, the Congress once again failed to pull up their performance as it could only manage to assume the fourth position with 47 seats.

The Congress and NCP together with 111 seats have certainly come up with a strong opponent to the BJP-Sena alliance in the assembly.

With a confident smile, Fadnavis addressed media and accepted his party lost a few seats but also acknowledged that the BJP fought in lesser number of seats. "People have given a decisive mandate. We fought in lesser number of seats. Above all we lost some seats but the Opposition also could not increase its tally too much," the Chief Minister said.

Haryana goes for hung assembly

Though Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP gave a call to win more than 75 seats in the 90-member assembly, the saffron party struggled to even cross 40 in an occasional neck-to-neck fight with the Congress which was barely present on field during the poll campaign.

As per the last update, the Congress is ahead in 30 seats with 40 going to the BJP.

With either of the two national parties failing to reach the halfway mark, Dushyant Chautala's JJP is all set to be the kingmaker.

Though earlier in the day, Chautala denied to call him as "kingmaker", the JJP, as per several media reports, is likely to support the BJP to form the next government. However, whether Chautala will ask for the Chief Minister's post or not is still unknown.