As of 9.30 p.m. the BJP and Shiv Sena were the dominant parties on Thursday, winning a combined 15 seats and leading in a combined 26 parliamentary constituencies. The NCP managed to win three seats but the news was worse for the Congress having failed to win even one at the time.
Maharashtra is seeing a face-off between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The relationship between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena had turned rocky for a while, but the parties patched up in February to announce a seat-sharing plan of 25 and 23 seats respectively, to constitute the NDA.
In March, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) announced a seat-sharing plan of 26 and 22 seats respectively, to constitute the UPA.
In the 2014 general elections, the BJP claimed 23 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats, while the Shiv Sena won 18. The BJP is currently in power in the State under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. In the 2014 State Assembly elections, the BJP failed to get a majority, but won on a plurality. With the State Assembly set to go to the polls later this year, the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls could have a major bearing on what is to come.
Some of the key candidates are Union Minister Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur, Sushilkumar Shinde (INC), Ashok Chavan (INC), Poonam Mahajan (BJP).
Polling in the State was held in four phases – April 11 (7 seats), April 18 (10 seats), April 23 (14 seats) and April 29 (17 seats). The overall voter turnout was 63.04%.
Here are the top highlights:
| Party | Won | Leading | Total |
| BJP | 2 | 21 | 23 |
| INC | 1 | 1 | |
| Shiv Sena | 5 | 13 | 18 |
| NCP | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| AIMIM | 1 | 1 | |
| Independent | 1 | 1 |
Pawars retain Baramati, but crash in Maval
While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena combine failed to breach Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s bastion of Baramati, the saffron alliance succeeded in dealing a severe blow to the prestige of the Pawar clan in Maval.
While Mr. Pawar’s daughter, two-time NCP Member of Parliament (MP) Supriya Sule is home and dry in the Baramati leading by a handsome margin of more than 1.5 lakh votes, his grand nephew Parth Pawar – who is senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s son - has been comprehensively knocked out of the contest in his political debut in Maval.
Urmila Matondkar alleges EVM glitch in Magathane constituency
Actor-turned politician Urmila Matondkar, who contesting the Lok Sabha elections for the first time, has reported a glitch in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in Magathane constituency.
The politician has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and alleged that the signature on form EVM 17C was not matching the machine’s number.
The rise and fall of star candidates
With merely a few hours to go before election results are announced, star campaigners, including celebrities, cabinet ministers, incumbent MLAs and dynastic leaders have retained their leading positions, with a steady rise in their victory margin. Some, however, have started falling behind.
In the Mumbai South constituency, the newly appointed Mumbai Congress chief, Milind Deora, has been trailing throughout Thursday, while his opponent, Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena, is ahead by a margin of 69,814 votes.
BJP has edge over Shinde in Solapur
Narendra Modi's lookalike and BJP supporters celebrate victory at party office in Mumbai, May 23, 2019
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate has taken a lead over veteran Congressman Sushilkumar Shinde in the crucial Solapur Lok Sabha seat, according to vote-counting trends.
Mr. Shinde, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate, is facing two formidable opponents: Dr. Jai Siddheshwar Shivacharya Swami, the Lingayat seer who was cannily propped up by the BJP, and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi leader Prakash Ambedkar, whose entry into the fray is proving to be a major spoiler for Mr. Shinde.
While the swami has taken a lead of more than 30,000 votes over Mr. Shinde, Mr. Ambedkar has secured a little over 30,000 votes, eating into the Congress’ traditional Dalit-Muslim vote bank and threatening to spoil Mr. Shinde’s chances.
Alliance with the Congress-NCP proving costly for Raju Shetti
An alliance with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress in this general election is proving to be costly for two-time Member of Parliament (MP) and Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti.
The farmers’ leader is currently trailing behind the Shiv Sena’s Dhairyasheel Mane in the Hatkananagale constituency in Kolhapur district.
As per the latest data on the ECI website, Mr. Mane has secured a huge lead of more than 60,000 votes over Mr. Shetti.
The Swabhimani Paksha has been complacent about an ‘easy win’ on the Hatkanangale seat as it is considered to be Mr. Shetti’s stronghold.
Vote counting halted in Pune
The vote counting for the Pune Lok Sabha constituency was marred by an EVM glitch on Thursday morning.
Counting at booth number 14 has been temporarily halted after Congress representatives took objection to the fact that the (Electronic Voting Machine) EVM there had allegedly not been sealed properly, officials said.
According to initial reports, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and minister Girish Bapat, who is the BJP-Shiv Sena candidate for the Pune seat, has taken a comfortable lead over Mohan Joshi, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate.
Will BJP deal a blow to Pawar’s prestige in Baramati and Maval?
Early trends indicate a blow to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s prestige with both his daughter Supriya Sule and his grand nephew Parth Pawar trailing in the crucial Baramati and Maval Lok Sabha constituencies.
Parth Pawar, the son of former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, is trailing by more than 46,000 votes in the crucial Maval Lok Sabha constituency. He is up against Shrirang Barne, the sitting Shiv Sena MP of Maval.
Mr. Pawar’s daughter, two-time NCP MP Supriya Sule, too, is facing what seems to be a neck to neck race in Baramati against her opponent Kanchan Kool, the BJP-Sena’s candidate.
Over 1500 cops on duty during vote counting
In order to ensure that the counting of votes for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections goes of smoothly, the Mumbai Police has deployed more than 1500 personnel at three counting centres in the city.
Police officers said that the deployment includes personnel from the Mumbai Police as well as additional manpower from the Central Reserve Police Force, State Reserve Police Force, Quick Response Teams and Riot Control Police.
Highest number of NOTA votes in Palghar
Till 1 p.m., as many as 4,83,459 NOTA (none of the above) votes had been counted in Maharashtra. Palghar was leading with the highest number of 17,808 NOTA votes, followed by Nandurbar with 14,069 votes. In Mumbai city, Mumbai North East recorded the highest number of NOTA votes at 8,365, according to figures released by Election Commission of India (ECI) at 1 p.m.
The Bahujan Vikas Aghadi party is leading in Palghar while Bharatiya Janta Party was leading in Nandurbar and Mumbai North East.
Vidarbha: Saffron alliance leading in nine seats, Congress ahead in Chandrapur
The saffron alliance was in the lead in nine out of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Vidarbha. Congress was in the lead in Chandrapur with Suresh Narayan Dhanorkar alias Balubhau leading against BJP’s Hansraj Ahir by 4,265 votes. Mr. Ahir had won the seat in 2014 by defeating the Congress candidate with a margin of 2,36,269 votes.
As many as seven to eight talukas of Chandrapur are Naxal-affected and the red cadre had given a call to boycott the elections. There was also a wave of anti-incumbency after Chandrapur was declared a dry zone along with two other districts — Wardha and Gadchiroli-Chimur.
No alliance with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi might cost Congress-NCP
Not securing an alliance with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) is likely to cost the Congress-NCP dearly in several seats in Maharashtra.
After Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh chief Prakash Ambedkar joined hands with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) to form the the VBA ahead of Lok Sabha elections, the VBA was in talks with Congress-NCP to form an alliance. However, the talks fell through, following which VBA decided to contest independently in Maharashtra.
Early trends show that the VBA has made a large dent in the traditional Congress-NCP vote bank in the Maharashtra.
In Amravati, VBA candidate Gunwant Deopare has clocked 18558 votes so far, a 5.82% vote share. The contest is a close one between Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul and independent candidate Navnit Rana with Adsul leading by 10032 votes.
In Buldhana, even though the main contest is between Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav and NCP’s Rajendra Shingne where Jadhav is leading by 48976 votes, VBA’s Siraskar Baliram Bhagwan has clocked 47051 votes, a 14.69% vote share.
Major upset for NCP-Congress in western Maharashtra
People glued to the giant screen (Not in Pic) put up outside Maharashtra BJP head office on Lok Sabha Election results day on May 2, 2019
The BJP-Sena combine appears to be having the edge over the NCP and the Congress in eight seats, with major upset in the offing in Kolhapur, Maval and Hatkanangale, going by trends till noon.
The jewel in the crown coveted by the BJP is the Baramati Lok Sabha seat — the impregnable bastion of the Pawar clan. Here, Mr. Pawar’s daughter, two-time NCP MP Supriya Sule has secured a massive lead over her rival Kanchan Kool, the BJP-Sena’s candidate.
After trailing to Ms. Kool in the initial rounds, Ms. Sule has now secured a lead of over 75,000 votes.
Early leads bring good news for star candidates
Early leads have brought good news for star campaigners, including celebrities, cabinet ministers, incumbent MLAs and dynastic candidates.
In the Mumbai South constituency, Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant is racing ahead of the newly appointed Congress chief Milind Deora, with a margin of 17,310 votes.
While BJP’s Poonam Mahajan is leading from Mumbai North-Central, leaving behind Congress’ Priya Dutt with a margin of 14,017 votes, incumbent BJP MLA Gopal Shetty is leading from Mumbai North, ahead of actress Urmila Matondkar with a margin of 42,820 votes.
NDA leads in Marathwada
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is leading in all seats barring Aurangabad in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, with Aurangabad throwing up a surprising trend. The other major development that early trends are throwing up is from Nanded, where former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Maharashtra Congress Committee President Ashok Chavan is trailing.
In Aurangabad, early trends suggest that the fight is between Independent candidate Harshvardhan Patil and sitting Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Imtiaz Jaleel of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM). As of 11 a.m. Mr Jaleel was leading by a margin of 6,711 votes.
BJP-Shiv Sena in the lead in 31 seats
The ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is leading in at least 31 constituencies in Maharashtra and the Congress-NCP in 16 while the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi led in one constituency as per early counting trends on Thursday.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari led in Nagpur, BJP State president Raosaheb Danve-Patil in Jalna, Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan in Nanded, Supriya Sule-Pawar in Baramati and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana chief Raju Shetti in Hatkanangale.
Gadkari, Bhamre leading; Chavan, Shinde trailing
As of 10.30 am, Union minister Nitin Gadkari was leading by 3066 votes in Nagpur, while Union minister Subhash Bhamre was leading in Dhule by 13128 votes.
Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan was trailing by 2876 votes in Nanded while former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde was trailing in Solapur by 4627 votes.
Parth Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s grand nephew was trailing in Maval by 43,979 votes , while the NCP chief’s daughter Supriya Sule is leading Baramati by 6486 votes.
Union minister Hansraj Ahir was leading in Chandrapur by a margin of 49 votes. Union minister Anant Gite was trailing in Raigad by a margin of 1064 votes.
Mumbai Congress president Milind Deora has trailing in Mumbai South by 15,904 votes. - PTI
NCP’s Parth Pawar leads
As of 9 am, Parth Pawar , the grand-nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, is leading in Maval Lok Sabha seat of Maharashtra, as per initial trends available.
Parth, son of former state deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, is leading by 1,173 votes over Shiv Sena’s sitting MP Shrirang Barne.
In Shirur, NCP nominee Amol Kolhe is leading by 2,890 votes over Shiv Sena’s sitting MP Shivaji Adhalrao Patil. -PTI
