As voting concluded for the highly anticipated Maharashtra Assembly elections on Wednesday (November 20), all eyes are now on the exit poll results, which provide an early indication of who might secure the majority in the 288 assembly seats and who could become the state’s next Chief Minister. Maharashtra has witnessed a tumultuous political battle in the past, leading to splits in two of its most influential parties: the Shiv Sena (now divided into factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which has also fractured into groups led by party patriarch Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar, who allied with the BJP to gain power.