One last push by the septuagenarian NCP leader Sharad Pawar seems to have worked wonders in dimming the saffron shine. Pawar's head-on campaign against the BJP-Shiv Sena helped the NCP improve its tally to 54 seats against its 2014 number of 41 seats. The tirade kicked off by the 79-year-old against the saffron parties and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was, however, not enough to overthrow the government in Maharashtra.

In an interaction with the media after the results, Pawar said that voters had rejected "the arrogance of power". He was, however, quick to admit that since people's mandate is not with them, he will not experiment to enable government formation. The BJP-Sena had contested separately in 2014 and managed to put together 184 seats. The number this time dipped to 157 despite the saffron parties having a pre-poll alliance for the Assembly polls.