Mrityunjay Bose

Both the MahaYuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi have reached out to Hitendra Thakur, the founder of Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) and Bacchu Kadu, who commands the Prahar Janshakti Party.

After one hour of counting - involving postal ballots and EVMs, the BJP is leading in 60-70 seats while Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP is currently ahead in 23 seats an 15 seats respectively.

'Today is a very important day as a mother…Devendra is a boy from Nagpur…today he has become a big leader,' she said, saying that her son had worked 24x7 to ensure the Maha Yuti victory.

The BJP leader took a leaf out of the epic Mahabharat to explain his position and role.

None of the three Maha Vikas Aghadi - Congress, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar-headed NCP (SP) commands 10% of the seats, individually.

Five years down the line, the Thackeray-family is facing an existential crisis - as Eknath Shinde, who toppled his government, commands the real Shiv Sena and Thackeray holds control of what is now known as Shiv Sena (UBT).

During the Lok Sabha polls, Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP), which now depends on the man-blowing-tutari symbol, had the best strike rate winning 8 of the 10 seats. Now he is at the bottom of the six main parties of Maharashtra.

There were expectations that Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) would win some seats, however, they scored a duck.

The Maharashtra unit of the BJP has conveyed to the BJP high-command that 54-year-old Fadnavis, who is now the Deputy CM, needs to be in top job.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT)'s tally is 20 followed by Congress 10 and NCP (SP) of Sharad Pawar 10.