The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as a surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates leading in five of the six seats where the party is contesting, according to trends available on the Election Commission's website on Saturday.

With counting still underway for Maharashtra's 288 Assembly constituencies, early trends show the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is heading for a landslide victory. Meanwhile, speculation is intensifying over who will lead the state government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has delivered a remarkable performance in the Maharashtra assembly elections, achieving an 84% strike rate as part of the Mahayuti alliance.

BJP legislator Pravin Darekar on Saturday demanded that Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis be appointed as the next chief minister of the state with early trends in the counting of votes for the assembly elections suggesting a win for the Mahayuti combine.

With the BJP-Shiv Sena- NCP (Ajit Pawar) led Mahayuti set to gain a historic win in the Maharashtra assembly polls, Jubilant celebrations erupted at the BJP’s Mumbai headquarters. The early trends showed the Mahayuti leading in 220 seats in the 288-member assembly.

As trends from the Maharashtra assembly elections are coming out, Eknath Shinde's faction of the Shiv Sena appears to be solidifying its claim to the party's legacy, surpassing Uddhav Thackeray’s faction in a fierce political battle.

As the counting of votes for the Maharashtra Assembly elections progresses, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut has raised serious allegations of irregularities in the results. Speaking to the media, Raut claimed, "There is something wrong with these election results. This is not the decision of the people."

Election Commission of India’s official results website ‘results.eci.gov.in’ has reportedly experienced a technical outage on Saturday morning, at a time when India closely watches the high-stakes Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly poll battle.