BJP suffers major setback in Maharashtra, OGs Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar stand firm
Mumbai/IBNS: Even after their parties were split, symbols were taken away, and forced to change the names of their factions, Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and Sharadchandra Pawar have proven their relevance that they still lead the real Shiv Sena and the real Nationalist Congress Party.
Thirteen hours into the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls, the Thackeray faction is set to win 10 Maharashtra seats while Pawar's NCP is bagging eight.
However, their breakaway groups Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP have registered a score of six and one seat, respectively.
Overall, the INDIA bloc is set to win 31 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra. The NDA bloc is winning 16 seats.
As Team Thackeray surged ahead, posters came up outside its office, Sena Bhavan. "Who is the real Sena? People have shown."
Maharashtra is among the states where the NDA has faced a major dent as compared to 2019.
In no other state has the political landscape altered between two elections as in this key state. In 2019, the BJP and the Shiv Sena were in an alliance. Together, they won 41 out of 48 seats. The NCP won four seats and the Congress one.
The BJP-Sena alliance swept the state polls together later in 2019, but the tie-up fell through over the Chief Minister's post. Thackeray then tied up with the NCP and the Congress to form the state government.
Two-and-a-half years into his term, Thackeray was in for a massive setback after his close aide and Sena loyalist Eknath Shinde led a mutiny that would topple his government and split his party. Shinde, in fact, tied up with the BJP to form the new government and become its Chief Minister.
As the Maha Vikas Aghadi of Congress, Team Thackeray and NCP regrouped, another shock was in the offing. NCP veteran Sharad Pawar faced a revolt from within his family. His nephew Ajit Pawar led a rebellion that made the octogenarian launch a battle for his identity.
The numbers, if they hold till the end of counting, will also be a major boost to the Maha Vikas Aghadi's morale for the state polls later this year.
Clinching a historic yet reduced-majority election victory for a record-equalling third straight term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday thanked his allies Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu as he headed to lead a coalition government of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) depending on the two regional leaders.
With a slew of exit polls that gave a clear majority to Modi proving wrong, even in the win of the NDA, the celebrations are louder in the opposition INDIA Bloc led by Congress after they bagged a higher-than-expected number of seats.
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