Maharashtra Verdict 2019: BJP emerges as single largest party, set to form govt with Shiv Sena

Almost all exit polls have predicted that BJP-Shiv Sena will come back to power with a decisive mandate as Devendra Fadnavis seeks the second term as chief minister.

Poll of polls have predicted close to 200 seats for the BJP-Sena alliance and a setback for the NCP-Congress.

Voting for the Maharashtra and Haryana state elections were held on Monday along with bypolls to over 50 assembly and two Lok Sabha seats.

Maharashtra election 2019 witnessed an overall voter turnout of 60.46% which was 3% down from 2014 tally. Mumbai's Colaba region witnessed lowest voting percentage.

The top BJP leadership including Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah aggressively campaigned on their move to end the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and raised Opposition's questioning of the move. 

Congress and NCP contested on equal number of seats i.e 125 each.

A day after the voting for Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, the Congress expressed fear that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in the elections can be "tampered" using wireless networks like mobile phones and WiFi and requested the Election Commission that "Network Jammers" be used in and around the strong rooms where these machines have been kept.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra, state party chief Balasaheb Thorat demanded network jammers for all assembly constituencies till the process of counting is over.

This comes as the exit polls have estimated two-third majority for the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance against the opposition Congress-NCP combine. Nearly 60.5% voter turnout was recorded for the elections to 288 assembly seats in the state.