A triumphant Congress retained power in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh in the first national popularity test following the Lok Sabha ballot of May, leaving a divided opposition licking its wounds.

In the most crucial of all three states, the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the battle for power for a third time in a row and conceded defeat to the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance just four hours after the vote count started at 8 am.