Ahead of the counting of votes for Maharashtra Assembly elections tomorrow, a poster depicting Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar as the Chief Minister in Pune was taken down. The poster was placed by party leader Santosh Nangare in Parvati.

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In Maharashtra, the primary contest is between the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance and the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

The ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance includes the BJP, Shiv Sena and the NPCP, while the opposition MVA comprises the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction).

The ruling Mahayuti is poised to retain power in Maharashtra and the NDA also has an edge to form government in Jharkhand, exit polls predicted on Wednesday as polling concluded in the two states.

Most exit polls also predicted that MVA would put up a strong show in polls but is unlikely to cross the majority mark in the 288-member assembly.

According to the P-MARQ exit poll, the Mahayuti alliance would win 137-157 seats whereas the Maha Vikas Aghadi would get 126-147 seats and others 2-8 seats.

Chanakya Strategies projected that Mahayuti will win 152-150 seats, MVA 130-138 seats, and others 6-8 seats.

Earlier, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde said that post-Assembly results leaders of Mahayuti would sit together and decide on who would be the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Kalyan MP further said that there is "no competition" among leaders in the alliance to become the CM." All leaders (of Mahayuti) will sit together and decide. There was never a competition among leaders here to be the CM. We want to form the government to do more development work in the next five years. In the last 2.5 years, MVA only discussed who will be the CM. Their message did not even reach the public."