GUWAHATI: With 48 Parliamentary seats, Maharashtra is second to just Uttar Pradesh with 80 seats. This makes it one of the most highly sought after political arenas.
Six Lok Sabha seats in India's financial capital of Mumbai, went to polls in the fifth phase of general elections last month. These six seats were Mumbai North, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South and Mumbai South Central.
The region witnessed a high-profile contest, mainly between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the INDIA bloc.
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Despite various exit polls for the Lok Sabha election indicating a clear victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti in Maharashtra, vote counts have shown the Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) take a lead in 29 of the state's 48 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Exit polls had predicted 22 to 35 seats to the Mahayuti in Maharashtra, and 15 to 26 seats to the MVA. The situation on June 4 however seems almost reversed.
The vote count estimates have put the BJP, Congress and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) parties on equal footing in Maharashtra, with each leading in 11 seats.
Overall, the INDI Alliance has gained lead in 29 seats — Congress in 11, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena in 10, and Sharad Pawar's NCP in 8.
Anil Desai of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackerey) has won from the Mumabi South Central constituency-- the first result announced from the State. Shiv Sena- UBT is a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
The NDA has a total of 18 seats leading — BJP with 11, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena with 6, and Ajit Pawar's NCP with 1 seat.
Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) candidate Shrirang Appa Chandu Bane wins from Maval seat with 6,92,832 votes.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, battleground Maharashtra witnessed intense contests between the split Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party factions — Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (SHS UBT) and Shiv Sena Eknath Shinde faction (SHS); NCP Sharad Pawar faction (NCP SP) and NCP Ajit Pawar group.
The BJP contested in 28 constituencies, with its allies Shiv Sena (Shinde) in 14 and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in five.
On the other hand, the Maha Vikas Aghadi members saw Shiv Sena (UBT) competing in 21 constituencies, Congress in 17, and NCP (Sharad Pawar) in 10. The Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra was held in five phases.
In the past two years, the state has seen a dramatic turn of events in its tumultuous political landscape, with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) both being broken up and facing a struggle to prove their authenticity, with factions of both eventually moving towards the BJP alliance in the state.
