Thumping victory: From 14% to 29%, BJP doubles vote share in Maharashtra

Mumbai, Oct 19: The Bharatiya Janata Party is all smiles today. After recording a thumping victory in last general elections, the party has now emerged victorious in the assembly elections in two states - Haryana and Maharashtra.

In Maharashtra, the party's victory is even more special. A month before the elections, the party had parted ways with its partner for 25 years - Shiv Sena, over seat sharing issue. It was expected that the party would have to bear the brunt of breaking alliance with the right-wing regional party. However, now it seems that the party has almost doubled its vote share from that in 2009.

In 2009, the party had scored 14% vote share in Maharashtra. This time, it comes to about 29% - the highest ever by the party.

In the recent general elections, AIADMK in Tamil Nadu had garnered a total vote share of 44.3 per cent as against 23 per cent it gained in 2009. The BJP had done the same in Haryana where it doubled its vote share to 34.6 % from 17.21% in 2009 LS polls.

This time, all exit polls had rightfully predicted that BJP would emerge the single-largest party. But unlike the predictions, the party did not manage to get the magic figure 145 which is required to form government in Maharashtra. The party's former-ally Shiv Sena has emerged runner-up in the state. Both Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) might offer external support to BJP to form government in Maharashtra.

Oneindia News