The BJP-led Mahayuti on Saturday crushed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to retain power in Maharashtra while Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, cashing in on the sympathy due to his imprisonment on money laundering charges, led the JMM-headed-INDIA bloc to power in the tribal state for a second consecutive term.

The handsome victory for the Mahayuti in Maharashtra clearly suggests that the Narendra Modi magic continues to work for the NDA which trounced the Opposition alliance that was clearly a frontrunner in the battle at the hustings in India’s wealthiest state just about five months back.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were the star campaigners for the BJP led alliance. It was also Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s ”Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana” launched in June that turned the tide in favour of the three-party ruling dispensation.

Women came out in large numbers to cast ballots in the state, apparently helping the Mahayuti to register a landslide.

The Mahayuti’s victory in Maharashtra, coming close on the heels of the BJP’s win in the Haryana Assembly elections, has come as a morale-booster for the BJP’s rank and file which was dejected to an extent after the saffron party failed to secure an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha elections.

The victory has again put a seal of approval on Home Minister Shah’s rating as a “modern-day Chanakya and master strategist”.

The BJP alone is poised to win over 125 seats in Maharashtra, making it the largest party in the legislature wing of Mahayuti while the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is expected to win more than 50 seats. The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has also done exceedingly well.

The MVA has performed so badly that it will be difficult for any of its constituents to even claim the post of the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly. The poll outcome has not only been a jolt for the Congress but also for the Udhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

Eknath Shinde’s supporters have already gone to town to claim that their leader has inherited the legacy of Bal Thackeray and this is reflected in the poll outcome. However, it seems to be the end of the road for the Maratha strongman and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who has been decisively defeated by his nephew Ajit Pawar.

But the million dollar question that arises in Maharashtra now is who will be the chief minister of the state. Will Eknath Shinde continue to be the CM or his deputy and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, who played a pivotal role in ensuring the saffron party’s resounding win, get the coveted position again?

In Jharkhand, the BJP sought to raise the pitch on the Bangladeshi infiltration issue but that perhaps led to its below par poll performance. The BJP seems to have also paid a heavy price for some divisive and hateful speeches targeting a minority community by its leaders, particularly Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Adivasis have also overwhelmingly again reposed their faith in the leadership of Hemant Soren, who accused the Centre of putting him in jail on trumped up charges. His government’s welfare schemes like the Maiya Samman Yojana and the Sarvajan Pension Yojana have paid him rich dividends in the elections.

But the chief minister’s arrest in an alleged land scam case in January became the most potent issue around which the INDIA bloc conducted its poll campaign and the result is now there for everyone to see.
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