Last updated:
Polling to 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Uttarakhand was also held on Wednesday. The results for all elections will be out on November 23
Exit polls suggest that the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies may have an edge in Maharashtra and Jharkhand after their victories in the April-June Lok Sabha elections and last month’s Haryana polls. (Representative photo/PTI)
The last polls were held around 6 pm on Wednesday in the crowded 2024 election year as 288 Maharashtra seats went to polls in phase one, while Jharkhand saw polling for 38 seats with the first round of elections for the 81-member assembly held. on November 13. Bypolls for 15 Assembly seats spread in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Uttarakhand were also conducted there. The results for all elections will be out on November 23.
Exit polls suggest that the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies may have an edge in Maharashtra and Jharkhand after their victories in the April-June Lok Sabha elections and last month’s Haryana polls.
Maharashtra
ABP-Matrize has predicted 150-170 seats for Mahayuti and 110-130 for Maha Vikas Aghadi. P-MarQ has given 137-157 seats to Mahayuti and 126-146 to MVA. Chanakya has predicted 152-160 seats for Mahayuti and 130-138 for MVA. Poll Diary shows that Mahayuti can get 137-157 seats and MVA 126-146. People’s Pulse has predicted 182 seats for Mahayuti and 97 for MVA. Lokshahi Marathi-Rudra is expecting a neck-and-neck fight with 128-142 seats for Mahayuti and 125-140 for MVA.
The Bhaskar Reporters Poll was an outlier, predicting 135-150 seats for MVA and 125-140 for Mahayuti.
In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena (then undivided), won 161 out of 288 seats. However, the alliance collapsed due to power sharing, and the Sena joined the Nationalist Congress Party (then undivided) and the Congress to form the government.
However, in 2023, a rebellion by Eknath Shinde of the Sena, now the chief minister of Maharashtra, and Ajit Pawar of the NCP, who is now his deputy, forced CM Uddhav Thackeray to resign and the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government collapsed.
During the April-June general elections this year, Narendra Modi became Prime Minister for the third time, the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra won only 17 out of 48 parliamentary seats, losing to the Maha Vikas Aghadi opposition, which includes the Congress, Shiv Sena ( UBT), and NCP ( SP).
Jharkhand
According to exit polls from Matrize, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance will get 42 to 47 seats, while the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal-led coalition (part of the INDIA bloc) will win about 25 to 30, with the rest clinching between one and four seats. According to the Times Now poll, the NDA is expected to win 40 to 44 seats in the state, while the JMM-led coalition will win 30 to 40. Exit polls from People’s Pulse also gave an edge to the NDA, it predicted. 44-53 seats for the alliance with the JMM-led coalition in 25-37. Other candidates are expected to get five to nine seats. However, AXIS-My India is an outlier, predicting that the JMM-led alliance is likely to sweep the state with 53 of the total 81 seats.
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 state’s 82 seats.
Earlier this year, Hemant Soren resigned as CM before being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on corruption charges. He was briefly replaced by Champai Soren, a veteran politician and close aide of party patriarch Shibu Soren. But after Hemant returned to the CM’s seat after being released on bail, Champai rebelled and later quit joining the BJP.
In the April-June Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won eight seats in the state with 44.6% of the vote, and its ally AJSU won one seat with 2.62%. The combined INDIA bloc won only five seats-three by JMM and two by Congress, with a vote share of 14.6% and 19.19%.
