Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah is welcomed by jubilant supporters at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday following election results for the Haryana and Maharashtra state assemblies.
IANS/Mumbai/Chandigarh
India’s Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday created history in Haryana state by getting a clear majority on its own for the first time and said it would form the government in Maharashtra, where it emerged as the single largest group in a hung assembly.
The Congress was humiliated in both Haryana and Maharashtra which it had been ruling.
For the first time, the BJP got a clear mandate in Haryana and was looking name its first chief minister in the state.
Upsetting past trends, the BJP won 47 seats in the 90-member Haryana assembly, winning a 33.2% vote share.
The BJP Parliamentary Party Board met in New Delhi on Sunday evening to discuss candidates for the chief minister’s post.
Senior party sources said the new government was expected to be sworn in this week before the Hindu festival of lights which falls on Thursday.
In Maharashtra, the BJP won 119 seats and was leading in three others in the 288-member assembly, falling well short of the 145 required for a simple majority.
With the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party offering "outside support" to it, leaving the runner-up and former ally Shiv Sena high and dry, BJP president Amit Shah said his party would "form the next government" in the state.
NCP leader Praful Patel said Maharashtra needed stability and his party was ready to prop up a BJP government. With the NCP's 41 seats, the BJP can cross the threshold.
The Shiv Sena, which could end up with 63 seats, had earlier said it was ready to make up with the BJP, a sentiment shared by some of the latter's leaders, including L.K. Advani.
"I hope the BJP and Shiv Sena will come together," said Advani, one of those who was not happy with the BJP decision to dump its ally of 25 long years after a row over seat sharing ahead of elections.
Shiv Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut claimed that "all options" were still open for his party.
Party chief Udhav Thackeray later said that nobody from the BJP had approached Shiv Sena for its support.
"If (the BJP) they make any proposal, we shall consider it," he said.
Shah said the victory in Haryana and the near victory in Maharashtra proved that the "Modi wave", which catapulted the BJP to power in the Lok Sabha battle, was still intact.
