BJP emerges largest party in Maharashtra; capturing power in Haryana

Riding on the Modi wave, the BJP today appeared to be emerging as the single largest party in Maharashtra and looked like capturing power in Haryana unseating the Congress in both the states as counting of votes in the assembly elections progressed.

In keeping with the dominance the BJP displayed in both the states in the Lok Sabha elections early this year, latest trends in Maharashtra placed BJP as the top most party with leads in about 115 seats, over 30 seats short of the half-way mark of 145 seats in the 288-member assembly.

Its erstwhile ally Shiv Sena, with which the BJP may have to ally to form the government, was ahead in 63 seats. The Congress, which ran the government in coalition with NCP for the last 15 years, was placed in the third position leading in just 45 seats. Its former ally NCP was ahead in 45 seats.

Both the formations--Congress and NCP and BJP and its oldest saffron alliance Shiv Sena--fought the elections this time on their own, without any alliance.

In the last elections, Congress had won 82 seats and its then ally NCP had got 62 seats. BJP and Shiv Sena could get 46 and 44 seats respectively then.

In Haryana, BJP appears to be in a position to form the government with a majority. The party was leading in 47 of the 90 seats, two more than the half-way mark of 45.

The INLD was ahead in 18 seats, followed by Congress at 13 and others at 8, according to trends.

In the last elections in Haryana, Congress had got 40 seats followed by INLD which had won 31. BJP had then got 4 and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) had won six.