Even as most exit polls conducted after the October 21 Maharashtra assembly elections predicted a comfortable majority for the BJP-led NDA, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said its ally BJP would not be able to form the next government without the support of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.

Raut's statement comes on the eve of counting of votes for the high-stakes polls. Speaking to a regional news channel, the senior Sena leader also claimed that his party would win 100 out of the total 124 seats it had contested. The BJP had contested 164 seats, which include candidates of smaller allies fighting on its lotus symbol, out of the total 288 seats in the state.