NEW DELHI, Nov 23 — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally scored a landslide victory in Maharashtra, the country’s richest state, while the opposition bloc performed strongly in Jharkhand, a mineral-rich region.

The counting of votes on Saturday for the assembly elections in the two states showed the BJP ahead in 130 seats in the 288-member assembly, while its regional ally Shiv Sena was projected to win 54 seats.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), part of the BJP-led "Mahayuti” alliance, was ahead in 40 places, as per the latest official counting trends.

Their rival "Maha Vikas Aghadi” alliance, which included the Indian National Congress of Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, the NCP faction led by political veteran Sharad Pawar and the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray, was ahead in about 50 seats.

"I thank everybody for this victory. We have such a big victory because of the work Mahayuti did,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reportedly said.

In the eastern state of Jharkhand, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) of Chief Minister Hemant Soren led in 34 seats and his partners the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal were projected to win 15 and four seats, respectively.

India’s Election Commission on Oct 15 announced that Maharashtra and Jharkhand states will hold assembly elections in November.

About 96 million people are eligible to elect 288 members of the Maharashtra assembly on Nov 20 while Jharkhand’s 26 million voters will cast their ballots in two phases on Nov 13 and 20 to elect 81 representatives.

The counting of votes takes place on Nov 23.

The by-elections for two national parliament seats - Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala state – were also held this month along with 48 assembly by-elections in different states. — Bernama

-- BERNAMA

TAGS: India, elections, Maharashtra, Jharkhand