Maharashtra, Jharkhand counting today, both NDA, INDIA hopeful of win
The counting of votes for elections to the Assemblies of Maharashtra and Jharkhand, besides the Lok Sabha seats of Wayanad and Nanded and 48 Assembly seats in 15 states, including Uttar Pradesh (9) and Punjab (4), will be held on Saturday, with the outcomes set to determine the future course of national politics.
Stakes are high on both sides of the political fence with the BJP-led NDA and Congress-headed INDIA bloc pitted against each other in most electoral battles.
While the NDA is seeking to retain Maharashtra and wrest Jharkhand from the ruling JMM-led coalition, the INDIA bloc hopes to defend its government in Jharkhand and convert Maharashtra’s anti-incumbency against the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP’s Mahayuti dispensation into votes.
For the INDIA bloc, Maharashtra and Jharkhand wins are essential to break the winning momentum the BJP gained after the historic hat-trick in Haryana recently. On the other hand, a loss would mean losing the moral edge the INDIA bloc claimed over PM Narendra Modi by restricting the BJP below the majority mark in the Lok Sabha elections.
For the BJP, a victory would further strengthen the position of the PM, his lieutenant Amit Shah and RSS combine, the three forces that buried the hatchet to put their act together first in Haryana and then in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. In UP, CM Yogi Adityanath’s mettle will be tested. Record voting in both Maharashtra (highest in three decades) and Jharkhand (highest since the formation of the state on November 15, 2000) could prove to be the deciding factor.
On the eve of counting, INDIA partners flagged concerns about election frauds with Congress veteran Digvijay Singh alleging that the “BJP’s strength is EVMs”.
“Let us not forget that the strength of @narendramodi and @BJP4India is in the manipulation of EVMs. No matter what they do, ultimately they have the ‘Brahmastra’ in EVMs. My contacts who are aware of the realities of EVM manipulation predicted they are winning both elections even before voting,” Singh said on X.
