BJP-Shiv Sena leading in 160 constituencies in Maharashtra as of 11 am

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena candidates are leading in over 160 constituencies in the 288-member house, early trends of the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly elections showed.

While the ruling combine is almost guaranteed to cross the half-way mark, the opposition Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) nominees are ahead in around 92 seats as of 11 am.

The stakeholders need to win in 145 assembly seats to cross the halfway mark and form a government in the state.

In the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly Elections, BJP won 122 seats, Shiv Sena clinched 63 seats, while Congress and NCP won 42 and 41 seats respectively.

For BJP, the prominent leaders include Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Nagpur South-West, the BJP’s Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil in Shirdi, Nitesh Rane in Kankavali, Mohini Eknath Khadse in Muktainagar, Ashish Shelar in Bandra, Pankaja Munde in Parli.

Ally Shiv Sena’s Aditya Thackeray in Worli, Sanjay Raymulkar in Buldana, Yamini Jadhav in Byculla, besides party candidates in at least 30 other seats, were also leading.

From the opposition side, the NCP’s Ajit Pawar was leading in Baramati, Suman R. Patil in Tasgaon-Kavthe Mahankal, Hasan Mushrif in Kaga and Jitendra Awhad in Mumbra.

The Congress’ Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar was ahead in Brahmapuri, state President Balasaheb Thorat in Sangamner, Dheeraj Vilasrao Deshmukh in Latur Rural and Nitin Raut in Nagpur North.

The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) nominee Pramod alias Raju R. Patil was leading in Kalyan Rural.

Besides the ruling BJP-Sena and opposition Congress-NCP, the other important parties in the fray include the MNS, Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, the Owaisis’ All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party.

Over 200,000 police personnel has been deployed as more than 25,000 election officials were counting the votes simultaneously across the state.