Most of the exit polls projected an advantage to the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra Assembly polls while the pollsters seem to be divided over the outcome in Jharkhand.

Five exit polls, made public after the voting came to an end in Maharashtra at 5 pm on Wednesday, predicted the return of Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP in Maharashtra.

The majority mark in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is 145.

While Times Now-JVC gave 150-167 to Mahayuti alliance, 107-125 to Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition of Uddhav Thackeray’s faction of Shiv Sena, NCP Sharad Pawar and Congress, and 13-14 seats to others.

Similarly, Chanakya Strategies projected 152-160 seats for Mahayuti, 130-138 to Aghadi and 6-8 to others. The other pollsters who gave the edge to Mahayuti are Matrize, and People’s Pulze.

Dainik Bhaskar was the lone platform to project an edge to Aghadi alliance with 135-150 seats, 125-140 seats to Mahayuti alliance and 20-25 seats to independents and others.

Lokshahi Marathi-Rudra, interestingly, projected a hung assembly in Maharashtra, offering Aghadi alliance 135-140, which is five seats short of majority mark of 145. It gave 125-140 seats to Mahayuti coalition.

P-Marq came up with a close call scenario for the two coalitions, giving 137-157 to Mahayuti alliance, while 126-146 to Aghadi coalition.

In Jharkhand, the Times Now-JVC projected 40-44 seats for the BJP-led NDA while it gave 30-40 seats to INDIA and one seat to others in 81-member Assembly. The majority figure is 41 to form the government in the tribal State.

Likewise, Matrize’s exit polls predicted a better showing for the NDA, giving 42-47 seats to them, while 25-30 to INDIA alliance and 1-4 seats to others.

Chanakya Strategies also stated that NDA will form the government by bagging 45-50 seats and INDIA will fall short of magic figure as they are projected to win 35-38 constituencies and others will end up with 3-5 seats.

The exit polls that projected that INDIA alliance may retain power are Axis My India and P-Marq. Axis gave 49-50 seats to INDIA while 17-27 to the NDA and 1-6 seats to others.

Jharkhand voted in two phases — the first one was on November 13 and the second on Wednesday. The results for both the assembly polls will be announced after the counting is over on November 13.

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