Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday expressed confidence of his party’s victory in the assembly polls, saying the people have immense faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Fadnavis said it is good that all the exit polls have given his party a victory, and added that the BJP will form the government in Maharashtra with a clear majority.
“We have been saying that the people are with the BJP. The kind of campaign which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done here, people trust him and they feel that the government which rules at the Centre should rule in the state as well. That’s why, we will get full majority,” he told the media in Nagpur.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel expressed doubt over any single party getting clear majority in Maharashtra and said that there will certainly be a coalition government in the state.
“I don’t think that any one party is going to get majority and there is a possibility that a coalition government might be formed in Maharashtra. Now, it’s difficult to say which kind of government will be formed and it would not be correct to comment based on the exit polls. But in their results also there is a possibility of major changes to happen,” said Patel in New Delhi.
“I don’t think that the largest party would get more than 110 seats. Along with the NCP and the statistics shown by the rest of the parties, we believe that we will definitely get more seats,” he added.
The voting, that began in Maharashtra at 7 am amid tight security arrangements, ended at 6 pm.
The voter turnout percentage was lower in Maharashtra as compared to Haryana with only 54.5 percent of the eligible voters in the state voting till 5 pm.
“Across the 288 constituencies in Maharashtra, the number of polling stations were 91,376, with 4,119 candidates standing for elections. The voter turnout till 5 pm was 54.5 percent. However, since polling went on till 6 pm, it is likely to be around 62 percent,” Deputy Election Commissioner Sudhir Tripathi said.
Counting of the votes will take place on October 19. (ANI)