Following a moderate turnout of 50-55 per cent voters in Maharashtra on Wednesday, the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance exuded confidence of retaining power in the state. Its optimism was shared by the exit polls, which declared that the ruling coalition was at a distinct advantage. One poll, however, showed the Sena-BJP combine marginally ahead.
The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, on the other hand, is confident that the Congress-NCP is on its way out. Referring to earlier surveys, their leaders asserted that exit polls do not reflect ground realities and have often gone wrong.
Leaders of the ruling alliance too made it clear that their assessment was based on their own "feedback" and not on poll surveys. Voting was conducted peacefully, except for two stray incidents of violence in the Naxal-infested Gadchiroli district in Vidarbha. There was cross-firing between the police and Naxals and voting was suspended for a while. The policemen injured in the firing are, however, said to be out of danger.