A ss e mb ly E l e ct i on R e su lt maharashtra 288 tOTAL BJP CONG NCPSP SHIV SENA SHSUBT NCP OTH BJP Polls 2024 Swing factor Massive slide in vote shares of Uddhav’s shiv Sena, Congress Jharkhand victory consolation prize for anti-BJP INDIA bloc BJP gets its Maha mantra right, Cong loses more mojo BJP: +0.59% SSUBT: -6.75 Cong: -4.52% SS: -0.58% Biggest blow for Shiv Sena (UBT) Eknath Shinde won KopriPachpakhadi seat by 1.2L votes Electoral mood changed dramatically compared to the 2024 LS polls. BJP gained both vote share and seats while the Shiv Sena (UBT) suffered the most losing 6.75% vote share, followed by the Congress *Swing Factor refers to the vote share gain/ loss compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls Jharkhand BJP CONG JMM OTH Shiv Sena NCP SHSUBT NCPSP Others 81 tOTAL BJP 21(-4) 16 34(+4) 10 Congress Prime Minister Narendra Modi at BJP HQ in New Delhi on Saturday | Shekhar Yadav At 85%, BJP’s strike rate highest in state maharashtra S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai The closely-fought Maharashtra assembly elections on Saturday decisively swung in favour of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, routing the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi that had gained a psychological advantage by its sterling performance in the Lok Sabha polls six months ago. The BJP emerged the single largest party with 132 seats, surpassing its last two scores of 122 in 2014 and 105 in 2019. This is the peak BJP performance in Maharashtra with a strike rate of more than 85% — highest among all alliance partners as well as the Opposition. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena contested 79 seats and won 57, with a vote share of 12.38%. Shinde ensured that the MLAs who revolted along with him against Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership got elected. In contrast, the Uddhavled Sena could manage just 20 seats. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led NCP won 41 of the total 59 seats it contested with a 9.01% vote share as against Sharad Pawar’s NCP-SP getting 11.28% votes but only 10 seats. As for Congress, it managed to pick up just 16 seats in the assembly polls despite contesting from 101 (12.24% vote share). e x p r ess r e a d 25 panchayats pass motion against tungsten mining Madurai: Over 25 panchayat unions in Madurai district passed a resolution against the mining of tungsten by a Vedanta-group company in 10 blocks of Melur taluk, during the grama sabha meeting held on Saturday | P4 WITH THIS ISSUE India’s Scamdemic PLUS 12 PAGES divisive forces lost: PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the Maharashtra mandate as a victory of development, good governance and social justice. Speaking at the party headquarters, Modi said, “Divisive forces have been defeated.” He alleged that India faces the challenge of urban Naxals of the Congress whose its remote control is abroad | P7 Hemant Soren with Kalpana Soren and sons at the Ranchi airport on Saturday | PTI JMM Soren storms back to power with record win Jharkhand m u k e s h r a n j a n @ Ranchi Disproving exit polls that gave the BJP-led NDA an edge in the Jharkhand assembly polls, Hemant Soren’s JMM-led alliance on Saturday stormed back to power for the second consecutive term, winning a comfortable majority in the 81-member assembly . Soren, riding on the immense popularity of his spouse Kalpana and welfare schemes like Mukhyamantri Maiyan Samman Yojana, scored the best-ever performance by any party or leader since the formation of Jharkhand. The BJP had deployed master strategists including Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and also plugged the loopholes that had led to ouster of the Raghubar Das government in 2019, but it failed to regain the trust of the people, particularly tribals in Jharkhand. According to political analysts, the financial assistance of `1,000 under Mukhyamantri Maiyan Samman Yojana was a big hit as it helped JMM mobilize women voters in Jharkhand. Talking to this newspaper ahead of the Assembly polls, Kalpana had termed the programme as a revolutionary step. Spectacular gain for JMM, BJP loses hold Backward tag to go In a video message shared after the win, Soren said he will try to remove Jharkhand’s ‘backward’ tag and make it a developed state powered by self-governance Hemant Soren won the Barhait seat by 39,791 votes, defeating BJP’s Gamliyel Hembrom The Hemant Soren-led party gained nearly 9% vote share in the Assembly elections compared to the recently held Lok Sabha polls, while the BJP share slipped significantly. In all, the coalition comprising the JMM, Congress, RJD, and CPIM(L) Liberation won 56 out of the 81 seats up for grabs ■ 132(+27) 16(-28) 57 Will BJP do a Bihar in Maha 41 on CM choice? 20 10 12 Congress DHARMAPURI l sunday l november 24, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ Others Swing factor BJP: -11.42% Cong: -3.63% JMM: 8.84% S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai After the thumping victory of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra Assembly elections, the million dollar question now is who would be the state’s next chief minister. Would the BJP let Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde retain the chief minister’s post as Mahayuti fought the elections under his leadership, or would it choose to put its own person in the CM’s chair, now that it’s the largest party in the alliance? BJP leader and Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said there is no dispute in Mahayuti over who would be the next CM. He claimed one of the two—Shinde or Ajit Pawar— would be chosen as the next CM. He pointed to party leader Amit Shah’s statement that leaders of the three Mahayuti parties will sit together and take a call. However, members of both the Sena and the BJP camps are confident of their party getting the CM’s post. “It will be interesting to see whether the BJP top brass will decide to do what it did in Bihar (making Nitish Kumar the CM) by choosing Shinde as the CM so as to send a message that it respects its allies even when it has the numbers to claim CM’s chair, or would it put its own person in the CM’s chair,” a political observer said. ‘women voters outnumbered male voters by 5.5l across state’ Kalpana’s entry into active politics in the absence of her husband also helped as women voters instantly connected with her. As per ECI data, women voters outnumbered male voters by 5, 51,797 across the state during the two-phase polling, said political analyst and Professor V P Sharan