Maharashtra Legislative Assembly 2024 voting is going on. As millions turn to exercise their franchise across the state, initial hours of the day are going to be full of news about voting. But as the day wears on, focus may turn to the results of the elections in the western state of the country. While we will have to wait for the official vote-count on November 23rd, various exit polls will be out today itself. So when can you check out what way the political winds may be blowing? Read on.
But first things first, what's at stake in current elections. In numberspeak, the entire fray is for 288 seats in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Maharashtra may be just one state but the party or an alliance that grabs power here gains immense clout nationally since India's financial capital Mumbai is in Maharashtra.
How Is The Current Political Situation In The State?
The state is ruled by the Mahayuti, the alliance of BJP, Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) and Shiv Sena (Shinde faction).
Mahayuti has 202 MLAs with it. Of these, BJP has 102, NCP (Ajit Pawar) has 40, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) has 38 MLAs and other parties account for 22.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has 69 seats with it. Out of these, Congress has 37, Shiv Sena (UBT) has 16, NCP (Sharad Pawar) has 12 while other parties have 6 seats. Fifteen seats in the assembly are vacant.
The magic number in the assembly is 145. And the exit polls due to be released today will discuss matters centred around this number.
Exit Polls: When and Where To Watch:
As per strict rules set by Election Commission of India, exit polls cannot be shown while the voting process is in progress. This is done to prevent any voter to get swayed by the predictions made in the exit poll.
The voting booths in the state will allow voters to vote till 6 pm on Wednesday, November 20. This means that barring exceptions made locally, the voting would conclude by 6 pm.
The exit polls are likely to be released after 6:30 pm.
All majors news outlets including The Free Press Journal, will carry updates about exit polls. The exit poll figures can be checked on TV channels and also on official handles on social media platforms like X, Youtube, Facebook and more.
It is important however, to note that exit polls do not represent official results of the election and such polls are often made by surveys of voters. Although there is possibility that exit polls may indicate what will happen in the election results, they may not accurately reflect the actual results which will be declared by Election Commission of India on November 23.
There have been ample cases in the past where exit polls have predicted wrong results. Recent example is Haryana assembly elections.
Almost all of the exit polls had predicted victory for Congress but BJP government managed to hold on to power comfortably.
