The BJP-Shiv Sena coalition was on course to retain power albeit with a reduced majority in Maharashtra where the opposition Congress-NCP alliance put up a good show while the BJP-ruled Haryana ended with a hung assembly and JJP chief Dushyant Chautala likely to become the kingmaker. In the first Assembly elections after the BJP's triumph in the Lok Sabha polls in May, the party's electoral juggernaut met with some resistance in Maharashtra and Haryana with a resurgent Congress performing creditably in the northern state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party in Haryana followed by the Congress.
The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) not only improved its performance in Maharashtra but fared even better than senior partner Congress by contesting lesser number of seats.
In Haryana, the Congress, which failed to bag even one seat in the Lok Sabha polls, won 31 of the 90 seats at stake compared to its previous tally of 15. The BJP, which had 47 seats in the outgoing 90-member house, won 40 seats. The half-way mark is 46.
All eyes were on the fledgling Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) which was floated last year by Dushyant Chautala, a former MP from Hisar, after a vertical split in the once powerful INLD following a family feud in the Chautala clan.
