How today's Maharashtra results will decide tomorrow's national ...

The Maharashtra Assembly election results will have repercussions way beyond the state. From Hindutva politics to reforms push, to alliance arithmetic, it will determine the course and discourse of national politics.

With the Mahayuti win, the alliance has not only managed to reverse its setbacks from the 2024 General Elections but has also shown signs that this victory could shape national politics moving forward. (Image: Devendra Fadnavis/PTI)

What happened in Maharashtra won't stay in Maharashtra. This is because the big and diverse state has become a laboratory, and the outcome of the Assembly election is going to impact national politics in multiple ways. Leads suggest that the BJP-led Mahayuti is sweeping the Assembly election in Maharashtra, while the Congress's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has been decimated.

The Mahayuti is leading in 230 of the 288 Assembly seats, and the MVA in just 51. The BJP is leading in 132 of the 149 seats it contested, an astounding strike rate of 89%.

Here's a look at the seven big outcomes that are going to emerge from the expansive and diverse laboratory of Maharashtra. The battle here was the biggest since the 2024 Lok Sabha election and came close on the heels of BJP's Haryana coup.

The Lok Sabha election saw the BJP return to power for a historic third term, albeit with reduced numbers. The BJP is running the government with the help of its NDA allies.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, however, not revealed any sign of weakness on the reform front and widened the Ayushman Bharat medical insurance cover, and introduced the United Pension Scheme.

However, there were some climbdowns, like in the case of the Lateral Entry Scheme and the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill. It also had to restore indexation benefits, withdrawn in Budget 2024-25.

The government also tabled the bold Waqf Bill, which saw vehement protests from Muslim outfits and opposition parties. The Waqf Bill was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), which is now ready with its report.

The stellar performance of the BJP in Maharashtra, coming close on the heels of the historic party's victory in Haryana, will boost the confidence of the central government.

The Modi government will now confidently move ahead with the Waqf Bill, which is aimed at reforming how Waqf properties are managed. It might also help push forward the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) that PM Modi has rebranded as the Secular Civil Code.

The debate on the JPC's report on the Waqf Bill might take place in the winter session itself.

In the Lok Sabha election, the BJP faced a pincer attack. While Muslim votes went en bloc to Opposition parties, the Congress campaign around the caste census chipped away at BJP votes.

In both the 2014 and 2019 general elections, the BJP managed to get votes from all castes and communities, which wasn't the case in 2024.

The BJP lost crucial seats to the pincer attack, and Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis held up the loss in Dhule by 3,800 votes as an example.

In the Dhule Lok Sabha seat, while the BJP led in five Assembly segments, a landslide voting for the Congress in Muslim-dominated Malegaon Central turned victory into defeat.

"Batenge toh katenge," warned Fadnavis. Campaigning in Dhule, PM Modi too gave the call of "Ek hai toh safe hai".

The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), after its hands-off approach in UP and West Bengal in the general election, hit the ground in Maharashtra.

The RSS involved 65 organisations for its 'Sajag Raho' (stay alert) campaign, to prevent a division of Hindu votes on caste lines.

Maharashtra, thus, turned into a Hindutva 2.0 laboratory and the success of the RSS-BJP in consolidating votes here will most likely be replicated nationally.

The Congress's decimation in Maharashtra also shows how it loses in direct fights with the BJP.

The results of 76 seats in Maharashtra, where there was a head-on fight between the two, were most keenly watched. Of these, 36 were in Vidarbha, a region that has been swept by the BJP-led Mahayuti.

The rise of the BJP and the slide of the Congress is visible in what the parties have done in straight fights, which reveal a party's organisational strength and popularity.

The Congress's strike rate in direct contests with the BJP saw a huge jump from 8% in the 2019 Lok Sabha election to 30% in 2024. The BJP's strike rate fell from 92% to 70%.

However, the story was reversed in Haryana in October, where there was a straight contest between the BJP and the Congress. The Congress failed to prevent the BJP from forming the government for a record third straight term.

The Haryana loss in a straight fight came after defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

The Maharashtra Assembly election outcome cements that perception -- the BJP is way ahead of the Congress when it comes to direct fights.

The Maharashtra outcome for Mahayuti reaffirms that the BJP is a formidable election machinery. This victory boosts the party's confidence as it gears up for the 2025 election cycle, starting with the Delhi Assembly elections in February.

The knives were already out in the INDIA camp for the Congress after its humiliating setback in Haryana. With a drubbing for the party in the Maharashtra election, its alliance partners will twist the knife now.

The Congress's strike rate in Maharashtra, where it is leading in 19 of the 101 seats it contested, was an abysmal 19%.

In Haryana, the Congress didn't take along the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), an INDIA bloc ally.

An editorial in Saamana, the Uddhav Sena's mouthpiece, blamed the Congress's defeat in Haryana on the party's "overconfidence and arrogance of the state leadership".

In Maharashtra, too, the Congress tried to play the bigger partner and didn't allow Uddhav Thackeray to be projected as the CM face.

A poor show by the Congress in Maharashtra might make several INDIA partners revolt. The first is likely to be the AAP, with elections in Delhi being the next big test.

With the INDIA bloc registering a victory in Jharkhand, it also shows how dependent the Congress is on its regional partners. In Jharkhand, the Congress was a junior partner to Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

The BJP emerges as a stronger power centre which can hold on to the NDA partners, while the Congress is proving to be a weak nucleus to hold on to the allies.

In Maharashtra, at stake were big infrastructure projects too.

The Congress-led MVA was trying to woo voters by promising cash doles. It even compelled the Mahayuti to promise higher cash guarantees, including the flagship Ladki Bahin Yojana.

What the NDA partners got right amid the battle of revids (poll sops), was a right mix of infrastructure development.

As the Mahayuti returns to power, it will go ahead with the concretisation of Mumbai roads, the open park at Mahalaxmi Race Course, and the Gargai Pinjal water projects.

These projects have been highlighted by the Mahayuti partners.

Had the MVA toppled the Mahayuti government, it would have thrown a spanner into the Dharavi redevelopment project. Shive Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray said he would cancel the tender for the redevelopment of Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in the world, awarded to the Adani Group.

In a way, the outcome has decided how much elections are determined by populist sops and real development on the ground.

Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, promised a heated Winter Session, which is set to begin on Monday (November 25).

Rahul Gandhi has planned his primary attack on the government on the indictment of Adani Group Chairman, Gautam Adani, in the US in an alleged bribery case.

With the loss of face in Maharashtra, where it won just 18 seats, the Congress might lack the spirit for a fiery attack.

At every election rally in Maharashtra, the Congress leader accused the Modi government of crony capitalism, by associating it with the Adani Group.

The massive victory for the BJP in Maharashtra proves that such allegations don't have an electoral impact. This was true in earlier polls too.

The BJP, seeing that such charges don't have voter resonance, can blow the Opposition attack to smithereens.

From consolidation of Hindu votes to reforms, from infrastructure push to standing among alliance partners, the results of the Maharashtra Assembly elections will have repercussions on the course and discourse of national politics for some time to come.