The BJP-led “Maha-Yuti” (grand alliance) on Thursday afternoon appeared poised to post its best-ever performance in the lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, where its winning tally might cross 40 seats of the total 48 seats.
The ruling Congress-NCP alliance, which had won 25 seats in the 2009 polls, was heading for an unprecedented debacle in a state, where its senior leaders like Sushil Kumar Shinde, Milind Deora of the Congress, Praful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal of the NCP were heading towards shocking defeats. Slated to surpass the projections made in the opinion and exit polls, the BJP and Shiv Sena were leading in 23 and 19 constituencies respectively.
A humiliating defeat stared in the Congress’ face, as the Sonia Gandhi-led was leading in just one seat in the entire state, while its ruling ally NCP had gained leads in four constituencies.The Raju Shetty-led Swabhimani Shetkari Paksha, which is a constituent of the BJP-led NDA, was leading in one constituency, according to official trends available at 1.06 pm.
If the BJP wins over 20 seats, it will be best-ever performance put up by the senior saffron alliance partner. The BJP had won 18 seats in the 1996 seats. The same holds for the Shiv Sena, if it crosses 15-seat winning tally in the polls. The Sena had won a maximum 15 seats in the 1999 polls.
Together, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance will have put up the best-ever performance if they win more than 33 seats, a tally he had come up in the 1996 lok Sabha polls. Given the available pointers, the Sena-BJP might either touch a figure of 40 seats or even surpass the figure in the 2014 polls.On the contrary, the Congress-NCP alliance should consider itself lucky if it manages to half a dozen seats. Between them, the NCP was leading in four seats, while the NCP had established lead in only one seats.
While Bhujbal of the NCP bit dust in Nashik, Shinde and Patel were heading towards defeats in Solapur and Bhandara-Gondia respectively. Senior BJP leaders Nitin Gadkari and Gopinath Munde were all set to romp home in their home constituencies of Nagpur and Beed respectively.In Mumbai, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance appeared set to sweep all the six seats. Among the likely losers in the metropolis were Union Minister Milind Deora, sitting Congress Priya Dutt and former Union Minister Gurdas Kamat.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis asked the ruling Democratic Front (DF) to resign from office in the state and seek fresh mandate, in the wake of its debacle of the Congress-NCP alliance in the lok Sabha polls. “The Congress-NCP alliance should accept its moral responsibility for the electoral defeat and step down from office in the state,” Fadnavis said.
