The high-stakes Maharashtra election on Wednesday, which saw a five-cornered contest, recorded a 63.4 per cent turnout, almost four per cent higher than the figures for the 2009 Assembly polls and the Lok Sabha polls in May. The Mumbai voter turnout was 51.96 per cent, which is almost 6 per cent higher than the 2009 figure of 46.1 per cent.
Most exit polls on television showed the BJP winning the highest number of seats, but falling short of the half-way mark of 145. However, the Chanakya poll, which accurately forecast the Lok Sabha results, predicted an absolute majority for the BJP with 151 seats, give or take 9. The Shiv Sena was placed second. The Congress came third in most of the polls, ahead of its former ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The sundering of long-standing political alliances shortly before the poll seems to have pushed more voters to the booth. The election is generally seen as a referendum on whether the Modi wave persists past the Lok Sabha polls. It will also determine whether the BJP’s former ally the Shiv Sena’s strident Marathi pride campaign will polarise this section against the party.
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The election will also test whether the former allies, the Congress and the NCP, which ran the government for 15 years, will be able to combat anti-incumbency by contesting separately. Raj Thackeray’s party, which was reduced to a non-entity in the Lok Sabha polls, will be fighting to retain its relevance.
Attack on Modi
The acrimony between the former saffron allies was evident even on polling day after the Shiv Sena’s newspaper,
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“Mr. Modi is the leader of the nation. The BJP will not tolerate this insult,” said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray attempted some damage control by saying, “I only meant to show the power of the common man, who voted a tea-seller to power.”