Modi wave sweeps Maharashtra; BJP-Shiv Sena alliance grabs 41 of 48 seats

The INC-NCP combine managed to win 5 seats, with NCP leading in 4 and INC in 1

Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Subhash Bhamre have established comfortable leads over their rivals in Maharashtra as the BJP-Shiv Sena combine is ahead in 41 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The Congress was ahead on only one seat.

Candidates of the BJP and its ally Shiv Sena were leading by more than one lakh votes in several seats.

The BJP was leading in 23 seats, the Shiv Sena in 18, the NCP in four while the Congress, AIMIM and an independent candidate were ahead in one seat each.

Gadkari was leading by 76,770 votes in Nagpur over Congress' Nana Patole while Bhamre was ahead of Congress' Kunal Patil in Dhule by 1.14 lakh votes.

In Jalgaon and Maval, the BJP-Sena alliance candidates had leads of over 2.5 lakh votes while in Raver, the BJP nominee was ahead by 2.12 lakh votes.

In Pune, BJP's Girish Bapat was leading by 1.03 lakh votes over his Congress rival Mohan Joshi.

Nominees of the two saffron allies were also leading by over one lakh votes in Ahmednagar, Jalna, Latur, Kolhapur, Kalyan, Dindori, Akola, Mumbai-South Central, Ratnagiri- Sindhudurg, Mumbai-North Central, Shirdi and Thane.

The Congress had a slight lead in Chandrapur, where Union minister Hansraj Ahir (BJP) was trailing behind his Congress rival Suresh Dhanorkar by 12,905 votes.

In Raigad, Union minister and Sena leader Anant Geete was trailing behind his NCP rival Sunil Tatkare by 4,989 votes.

In Baramati, NCP's Supriya Sule, after trailing in initial rounds, was ahead by nearly 1.56 lakh votes over her BJP rival Kanchan Kul.

However, her nephew Parth Pawar, also NCP candidate, was trailing by 2.06 lakh votes behind Shiv Sena's Shrirang Barne in Maval.

Most Congress candidates are trailing by huge margins.

State Congress chief Ashok Chavan was trailing behind his BJP rival Pratap Chiklikar by 33,725 votes in Nanded, while another Congress stalwart Sushilkumar Shinde was behind his BJP rival Jaisiddheshwar Swami by 99,612 votes in Solapur.

Mumbai Congress president Milind Deora was also staring at a defeat as he was trailing by 67,238 votes in Mumbai South.

In Mumbai, the Congress and NCP candidates were set to be routed as the BJP-Sena combine was leading in all the six seats.