Mumbai: Riding the crest of a Narendra Modi wave, BJP is set to form government in Maharashtra for the first time on its own with surprise "outside support" from NCP as the Assembly poll threw up a hung House with the party emerging a clear winner but falling short of a majority.
BJP's gamble of walking out of the alliance with 'big brother' Shiv Sena paid off as it secured 122 seats in the 288-member assembly, three more than the 119 offered by the erstwhile partner before the split and 76 more than what it had got in 2009.
It is for the first time since Congress' tally of 141 seats in 1990 that a party has crossed the 100-seats mark in an Assembly election in Maharashtra. Though the Sena too improved upon its 2009 showing winning 63 seats, it still fell short of its best performance in the 1995 poll when it had won 73 seats going to the hustings together with BJP and forming a coalition government.
Posting its worst performance, Congress secured 42 seats and former ally NCP, with which it had ruled the state for 15 years in a row before the poll-eve split, clinching 41. A big surprise in the election was the near obliteration of Raj Thackeray's MNS, which many thought will be the X-factor in the poll as it managed to win just one seat.
While the party, which pursued the 'Marathi pride' agenda with great fervour could clinch just one seat, Hyderabad-based MIM opened its account winning two seats. Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi and Peasants and Workers Party won three seats each, while Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, CPI(M), Samajwadi Party and BJP ally Rashtriya Samaj Paksha pocketed one each and independents won seven.
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