Mumbai: On the eve of the counting of votes for the Maharashtra assembly elections today, hectic politicking was underway over the prospects of various parties, possible alliances and speculation over the next chief minister.
With the pre-election scenario marked by the unprecedented break-up of the state’s two major alliances — the BJP-Shiv Sena and the Congress-NCP groupings — it created a situation where all the five major political parties, including Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, contested independently. Thus there are nearly a dozen hopefuls for the chief ministership.
The latest post-election surveys point to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerging as the single largest party in the 288-member assembly with over 100 seats, though earlier exit polls indicated the party could secure an independent majority.
The Shiv Sena may come out as the second largest political force followed by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.
Incidentally, both the Congress and the NCP have trashed all surveys and exit poll predictions, with a NCP spokesperson even claiming that the party was hopeful of an independent majority.
The predictions notwithstanding, there are many hopefuls from all the five major parties who are all playing around with various post-results scenarios.
IANS
