Mahayuti sweeps Maharashtra while INDIA bloc retains Jharkhand
The people have spoken for Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Maharashtra witnessed a Mahayuti sweep, with 230 of 288 seats in the State’s Assembly going to the alliance. BJP emerged as the largest party in the State, with 132 seats. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance is all set to retain Jharkhand’s 81-member State Assembly, in what marks the first time the same leadership is returning to power consecutively since the State’s formation.
  In Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi won just 46 seats, with none of the coalition members winning even the 10% of seats necessary for acquiring the Leader of Opposition post. Shiv Sena (Uddav Balasaheb Thackeray) won the highest number of seats (20), followed by the Congress with 16, and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) with ten seats. MVA victors include Congress State President Nana Patole, who scraped by on a very narrow margin, and Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray, who retained his Worli seat. Several Congress veterans including ex-Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, eight term MLA Balasaheb Thorat, and Yashomati Thakur faced defeat. Meanwhile, the Pawar family battle in Baramati was won by NCP head Ajit Pawar, with him defeating nephew Yugendra Pawar by over one lakh votes. 
  Of the two other Mahayuti alliance partners, the Shiv Sena won 56 seats, while the NCP won 41 seats. Mahayuti leaders have attributed their sweeping electoral success to the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana scheme, a high percentage of women voters, community outreach efforts, better internal coordination, and the RSS factor. The current Assembly’s term ends on November 26. The Mahayuti is slated to form the government within the next three days, but no decisions have yet been announced about the Chief Minister’s position.

  In Jharkhand, the JMM-led INDIA bloc won 56 seats, with the JMM notching up 34 seats-- its best electoral performance in the State. The Congress won 16 seats, while Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won four seats, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation won two. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured only 24 seats, less than the previous Assembly election, with BJP winning 21 seats, and one seat each being won by alliance partners the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U). 
  The BJP’s slogans Batenge to katenge” (divided, we will be destroyed) and “Ek hai to safe hai” (united, we are safe) seem to have backfired in the State, as did inflammatory rhetoric on ‘infiltration by Bangladeshis’, corruption, and demographic changes in the Santal Pargana. Champai Soren and JMM founder Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law Sita Soren joining the BJP was also perceived as an effort to break up Hemant Soren’s party. 
  Meanwhile, Hemant Soren’s Maiya Samman Yojana, a cash transfer scheme of ₹1,000 per month, four instalments of which were provided before the election, drew women voters to the INDIA bloc. Further, tribals and Muslims, considered the JMM’s biggest vote banks, supported the INDIA bloc. 
  Mr. Soren won the Barhait Assembly segment, defeating the BJP’s Gamilyel Hembrom. Mr. Soren’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged money laundering case and subsequent imprisonment appear to have led to a fall in the anti-incumbency sentiment amongst voters. His wife, Kalpana Soren, won the Gandey seat by defeating the BJP’s Muniya Devi. Prominent leaders who lost include the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Amar Kumar Bauri, Champai Soren’s son Babulal Soren, and Sita Soren, from Jamtara. The wives of two former Chief Ministers — Geetha Koda (wife of Madhu Koda), and Meera Munda (wife of Arjun Munda) — lost from Jaganathpur and Potka, respectively.
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