By-elections were also held on 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday. The results of all elections will come on 23 November

The last votes in the busy election year of 2024 were cast around 6 pm on Wednesday as 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra went to polls in a single phase, while Jharkhand went to polls for 38 seats in the first round of voting for the 81-member assembly. Happened. On November 13, by-elections were also held on 15 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday. The results of all elections will come on 23 November.

Exit polls indicate that the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies may get leads in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand after victories in the April-June Lok Sabha elections and last month’s Haryana elections.

Maharashtra

ABP-Matrix has predicted Mahayuti to get 150-170 seats and Maha Vikas Aghadi to get 110-130 seats. P-Marque has given 137-157 seats to Mahayuti and 126-146 seats to MVA. Chanakya has predicted Mahayuti to get 152-160 seats and MVA to get 130-138 seats. The poll diary has indicated that Mahayuti may get 137-157 seats and MVA may get 126-146 seats. People’s Pulse has predicted Mahayuti to get 182 seats and MVA to get 97 seats. Lokshahi Marathi-Rudra is expected to face a tough fight with 128-142 seats for Mahayuti and 125-140 seats for MVA.

Bhaskar Reporters’ poll is completely different, in which MVA is estimated to get 135-150 seats and Mahayuti will get 125-140 seats.

In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party and (then undivided) Shiv Sena dominated, winning 161 out of 288 seats. However, the alliance broke down over power sharing and the Sena joined hands with the (then undivided) Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress to form the government.

But, in 2023, rebellion by Sena’s Eknath Shinde, now the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and NCP’s Ajit Pawar, now his deputy, led to the resignation of then CM Uddhav Thackeray and the fall of his coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi government. .

While Narendra Modi became Prime Minister three times in the general elections in April-June this year, the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra won just 17 of the 48 parliamentary seats, and was left behind by the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, which includes the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT ), and NCP (SP).

Jharkhand

According to Matrice exit polls, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is likely to get 42 to 47 seats, while the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal ruling alliance (part of the Bharat Bloc) is expected to win around 25 seats. to 30, others have one to four seats. According to Times Now exit poll, the NDA is expected to win 40 to 44 seats in the state, while the JMM-led alliance is likely to get 30 to 40 seats. People’s Pulse exit poll is also predicting an edge for NDA. The alliance got 44-53 seats, while the JMM-led alliance trailed at 25-37. Other candidates are expected to get five to nine seats. However, Axis-My India has estimated that the JMM-led alliance is likely to win with 53 of the total 81 seats in the state.

In the 2019 assembly elections, Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, won 47 of the 82 seats in the state.

Earlier this year, Hemant Soren had resigned from the post of CM before his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on corruption charges. For some time he was replaced by Champai Soren, a close aide of veteran politician and party patriarch Shibu Soren. But when Hemant returned to the CM’s chair after being released on bail, Champai rebelled and later left to join the BJP.

In the April–June Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won eight seats in the state with 44.6% vote share, and its ally AJSU won one seat with 2.62% vote share. The India Bloc jointly won only five seats – three by JMM and two by Congress, with 14.6% and 19.19% vote share respectively.