Congress’ Nana Patole on Maharashtra exit elections

New Delhi:

Maharashtra’s opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi will form the next government in the state and its chief minister will take oath on November 25, Congress state unit chief Nana Patole told NDTV today . Asked about the exit polls, which predicted either an NDA victory or a hung house, he told NDTV in an exclusive interview: “Last time, they predicted a Congress victory in the Haryana and we lost. This time, they predict our defeat. I will surely win.”

Milind Deora of the BJP was also confident of victory for the ruling Mahayuti alliance. “I don’t like the numbers… but we will definitely win.” The reason for his confidence, he told NDTV, was that the alliance – coming off the Lok Sabha electoral setback, “left no stone unturned…and ticked all the boxes”.

Mr. Patole, however, ruled out this possibility. Asked if the BJP’s hopes were justified and the Lok Sabha poll results were an aberration, he said, “When Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not prevail in the Lok Sabha elections Sabha, when will (Chief Minister) Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis do it? ?”

Mr. Patole also did not give overall figures, but predicted that the Congress would win 35 seats in Vidarbha alone and the alliance would make a clean sweep of the area, winning at least 48-50 of the 62 seats.

The majority of the 288 members of the assembly amounts to 145.

The Congress contested 103 seats, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena 89 seats and Sharad Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party 87 seats.

Six seats were allocated to other MVA allies, while there was no clarity on the three assembly segments.

A total of nine exit polls indicated earlier in the evening that the Mahayuti – the ruling alliance of Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and the BJP – could win 150 seats and the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the coalition of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv faction. Sena, NCP Sharadchandra Pawar and Congress could get 125.

Exit polls that predicted an NDA victory include People’s Pulse, Matrize, Chanakya Strategies and Times Now JVC. The opponents are Dainik Bhaskar, Lokshahi Marathi Rudra and Electoral Edge.

The counting of votes will take place on Saturday.