Mumbai/Ranchi, Nov 23: The BJP-led Mahayuti stormed back to power in Maharashtra with a historic landslide that saw it on course to get over 230 seats in the 288-member Assembly, utterly crushing the MVA, which was reduced to less than 50 seats, while in Jharkhand, the JMM became the first party to retain power for a second consecutive term.

The BJP was also on course to win the Nanded Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra, and dominated the bypolls to 48 Assembly constituencies in 14 states, sweeping Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and Uttarakhand, while winning a major chunk of the seats in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. However, it faced setbacks in Karnataka, Punjab, and West Bengal and split honours with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh.

In some solace for the INDIA bloc, it retained Jharkhand, while for the Congress, there was cause to cheer as General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi won her debut election from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, while the party also managed to win all three Assembly bypolls in Karnataka, wresting away one seat from both the BJP and the Janata Dal-Secular. The Trinamool Congress won all six Assembly bypolls in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nine rallies across Maharashtra and his slogan of “ek hai toh safe hai” appear to have worked magic for the BJP, which was set to win 133 seats in the sprawling western state, while its major allies, the Shiv Sena, led by Eknath Shinde, and the Nationalist Congress Party of Ajit Pawar, were likely to end up with 57 and 41, respectively.

The Mahayuti's unprecedented triumph may spell curtains for the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena-UBT and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party which were utterly demolished by their Mahayuti rivals. Even the Congress was badly singed, with its state chief Nana Patole himself losing the election, though by 660 votes odd.

The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) also failed to open its account, despite all its hyperbole.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, of the BJP, said that the people of Maharashtra have voted against the toxic propaganda by electing those who are fighting against the fake narratives, and that the state's people solidly back the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chief Minister Shinde, accompanied by his deputies Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, thanked the common man for MahaYuti’s resounding performance while accepting the development politics and welfare schemes, rejecting the anti-growth and negative politics. He said that three parties will sit together and make a decision on the Chief Minister’s post.

Terming the poll performance ‘’historical,’’ he said: ‘’We have won the minds and not the votes of people."

NCP President and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said that their victory is a reflection of the people’s trust in the developmental work done by the government and the capable leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah at the Centre. The hard work put in by Chief Minister Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis, and every representative and worker of the alliance over the last two and a half years has borne fruit, he added.

A stunned Shiv Sena-UBT President and ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray said that it seemed like a tsunami swept aside the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), but felt that there was some ‘gadbad’ (something amiss).

"It was not just a wave, but a tsunami… This was beyond all expectations… Some say it’s the victory of the EVMs… Maybe. But if it's also acceptable to the masses then we have nothing to add," he told media persons.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi described the MVA’s drubbing in Maharashtra as “unexpected” and assured supporters that the party would undertake a serious analysis of the adverse outcome.

The BJP victory in Maharashtra is likely to embolden the NDA to take on the opposition in the coming Winter session of Parliament.

In Jharkhand, however, Hemant Soren withstood anti-incumbency and a determined BJP onslaught to retain power with a bigger margin against the 47 seats in the 81-member house won in 2019. His Jharkhand Mukti Morcha scooped up 34 seats on its own, while allies Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist-Liberation won 14, four, and two, respectively.

Hemant Soren thanked the people of the state following a decisive victory for his party and allies in the Assembly elections.

"We are going to create the history of 'Abua Raj, Abua Sarkar' (Our rule, our government) in Jharkhand," he told media persons.

“This was a landmark election. People would never have seen such an election in the state’s democratic journey. We have successfully passed the test of democracy," he said.

Meanwhile, with Priyanka Gandhi entering the Lok Sabha, the Parliament will, for the first time, have three members of the Nehru-Gandhi family, with her joining her brother Rahul Gandhi, the former Wayanad MP and current Rae Bareli representative and mother and former party chief Sonia Gandhi.

--IANS

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