Congress supporters celebrate the party's lead during counting of votes for Lok Sabha elections Photo: Kunal Patil Congress supporters celebrate the party's lead during counting of votes for Lok Sabha elections Photo: Kunal Patil 
The Mahavikas Aghadi coalition led by Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Senabuddha bet, Sharad Pawar NCP and Congress is leading in Maharashtra’s 29 seats as against the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance’s 18 seats, according to the Election Commission’s results as of 18.30 pm.
Maharashtra has the second highest seats (48) after Uttar Pradesh’s 80 seats. BJP had projected victory in 45 seats in Maharashtra. As per Tuesday’s results, the BJP was leading in 10 seats and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena in the 7 seats.
The Congress party which won only 1 seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, made the biggest comeback in Maharashtra leading in 13 seats. Its vote share in Maharashtra at 17.38 per cent is now second to the BJP’s 27.41 per cent. The Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), the two regional parties are in the lead in 9 and 7 seats respectively.
The only Independent candidate to win was Vishal Patil from Sangli seat who defeated BJP candidate Sanjay Patil by a margin of 1 lakh votes.
The MVA swept five out of Mumbai’s six constituencies leaving only one seat for the BJP. The much-discussed question of who carries the legacy of real Shiv Sena in Mumbai was put to rest by the Thackeray camp with all four candidates of Sena UBT: Arvind Sawant (Mumbai South), Anil Desai (Mumbai South Central), Anmol Kirtikar (Mumbai North West), and Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai North East), winning with comfortable margins. Veteran Congress leader Varsha Gaikwad, initially trailing behind BJP’s advocate Ujjwal Nikam, won with a slender margin of 16,000 votes. BJP’s star candidate Union Minister Piyush Goyal registered a winning margin of 352,816 votes in the Mumbai North seat against Congress’s Bhushan Patil.
Dr Shrikant Shinde son of CM Shinde has won the Kalyan seat for the third time with 239,000 votes against Sena UBT candidate Vaishali Darekar Rane. CM Shinde’s close aide Naresh Mhaske has also won Thane's seat with a lead of 214,000 votes.
Although Sena UBT won big in Mumbai, it has been wiped out in its stronghold of Konkan region. BJP Union minister Narayan Rane defeated Sena UBT Vinayak Raut with 47000 votes in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg. And NCP Ajit Pawar faction registered its only victory with Sunil Tatkare winning Raigad seat against Anant Geete from Sena UBT by 82,000 votes.
In the rest of Maharashtra, the splintered Shiv Sena UBT and NCP SP factions and the Congress made significant gains against the BJP. Congress candidate Balwant Wankhede defeated BJP’s Navneet Rana with 16,000 vote margin in Amrawati. In Ramtek and Chandrapur constituencies where Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his first public rallies in Maharashtra Congress candidates Shyamkumar Barve and Pratibha Dhanorkar defeated BJP’s Raju Parve and Sudhir Mungantiwar. Congress also made a comeback in its traditional bastion of Vidarbha and Western Maharashtra with significant victories in Bhandardara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Nanded, Jalna, Dhule, Latur, Solapur and Kolhapur.
In Baramati, a key constituency for NCP (SP), candidate Supriya Sule defeated sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar from NCP Ajit Pawar camp with a lead of 51,000 votes. NCP SP’s candidates also won Wardha, Bhiwandi, Dindori, Shirur, Ahmednagar and Madha seats.
BJP Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari won the Nagpur seat for the third time won with 269201 votes against Congress’s Vikas Thakre. buddha bet